A Tale of Two Broomsticks
by stained-glass-window
Summary: James S. Potter is the Gryffindor quidditch captain, Emma Wood, daughter of THE Oliver Wood is Ravenclaw quidditch captain. James and Emma are in their sixth year at Hogwarts and both of them are determined to win the Quidditch Cup this year. Follow them on their ups and downs of sixth year as they flirt, fight, argue and perhaps fall in love. James S. Potter/OC
1. Prologue

**A/N: I hope you enjoy (:**

**Disclaimer: I own my characters and that's all. **

* * *

**Prolouge**

Typical to any morning in the Potter household, James Potter was out the door as the sun rose while the rest of the house was still asleep. He put on his trainers and took off outside his house. The air was crisp that morning and he was dressed in a pair of running shorts and a sweatshirt. Godric's Hollow was quiet that morning except for the slight chirp from the birds. The wind blew sharply and James Potter began to pick up speed, his mind wandered to random thoughts, OWL scores were expected to arrive soon as well as a supposed letter regarding quidditch that Professor McGonagall had hinted to him before he had left for the summer.

Quidditch was a most wonderful sport in James opinion. It allowed him to escape clear his head. He loved flying, it gave him freedom and it made him feel relieved. The quidditch cup would be Gryffindor's this year, he was certain. Term started in almost two weeks and there was so much to do. James allowed his mind to wander off onto tangents as he ran.

By the time that he finished his run, the sun beamed on the streets of England and he slowed into a light jog as he entered the household.

"Morning dear," Ginny Potter called from the stove.

"Morning mum, dad left?" James said as his mother nodded.

"He sent his love," she smiled.

James kissed her on the cheek and swiped a strip of bacon from the skillet. "Morning Lil," James ruffled his sister's hair.

"James you ars-," she started, her voice faltered as Ginny turned to face her daughter with a stern look on her face.

James Potter stifled a laugh and Lily Potter shot him a death glare. Her flaming red hair made her sparkling green eyes pop in contrast to James' messy dark hair and hazel eyes.

There was a thudding from the stairs and the last of the Potters protruded into the kitchen. "Good morning," Albus mumbled, no one actually heard him of course because his nose was currently stuck in a book. He sat down and methodically started eating his breakfast.

"Al," James nodded.

"Mail's supposed to come today," he muttered.

Just as he said so, a large tawny owl swooped through the open window and landed precisely in the plate of toast that Ginny had earlier placed on the table.

"Hm. Good Call Al," James said to him as he proceeded to untie the letters attached at the foot of the owl. "Lil, would you like to check the damage?" he asked as he handed the bulky envelopes to his sister.

"As always," she smiled devilishly. Lily cleared her throat and began to read out the envelopes in an extremely aristocratic and snobbish manner. "James Sirius Potter," she announced, "has a achieved," Lily paused, scrunched up her nose, rubbed her eyes, flipped the parchment over and over, shook her head and continued to read, "Charms, exceeds expectations; Transfiguration, outstanding; Herbology, exceeds expectations; Potions, outstanding; History of Magic, acceptable; Defense Against the Dark Arts, outstanding; Astronomy, exceeds expectations; Ancient Runes, exceeds expectations," she finished dryly. "Who the hell are you and what have you done with James Potter."

There was dead silence all around as no one really knew what to say. Albus was simply staring at James, his book forgotten and Ginny looked as if someone had stunned her for a moment before breaking out into a huge smile, "Well that's fantastic James, I'm so proud of you."

"Uh, thanks mum," he said.

"How'd you do it?" Lily asked seriously, "did you pay someone to take it for you? Did Aiden take them for you? What about Emma?"

"Oh sod off Lily," James countered, "I did not let Aiden take them for me. And how is Emma even relevant to this conversation at all."

"Well Aiden's almost a genius, and Emma can beat you in quidditch, she's also very clever, and plus you fanc-,"

"Lil, you finish that sentence and I swear I'll stick your feet to the floor."

James happened to be best mates with a bloke from Ravenclaw named Aiden Chambers, they barely had any classes together and most of the time they were opponents on the quidditch pitch but whenever they had free time they were stuck together with glue, or so it seemed. As for Emma, Lily had this notion ever since she got to Hogwarts, that James fancied a girl on the Ravenclaw quidditch team. James would nearly strangle Lily every time, but needless to say, he claims he does not feel that way in the slightest.

"Well anyways, here's the rest of your letter it's not interesting enough for me to care," she said as she tossed an envelope to Albus and opened up her own.

Lily would now be entering her third year, Albus his fourth and James his sixth. James gathered up the remainder of his envelope and leafed through the pages, books for next year, there was a lot of weight on the envelope still, so James did the only logical thing, he dumped it upside down and shook it.

Out fell a small silver object and with a subtle "ping" it landed on the table. "What the hell?" James stared at the object, a badge, with wide eyes.

"What in Merlin's pants…" Albus and Lily said in unison.

"No way James! Captain! That's bloody amazing," Albus congratulated his brother.

"Thanks Al," James stuttered slightly in shock.

Ginny and Lily also proceeded to congratulate the boy, as this was more so believable than his owls. Then Ginny proceeded to look giddy with excitement and started mumbling all kinds of nonsense on how she must write to Harry and send him the message and she exited the room.

"At least this is believable," Lily noted.

"Thanks," James retorted sarcastically. "Can I have a hug?" he asked.

"You haven't even showered! That's putrid!"

"Please? For your loving big brother?" James teased as he began chasing the fiery red head around the house.

A little later in the day another package came for James. This time it was attached to two owls who swooped into the household and gracefully landed on James' bed. It was wrapped in paper with a little note attached.

_Potter,_

_Congratulations on captain! I knew Professor Longbottom would pick you, he would be barking mad if he didn't. _

_This is my gift to you, good luck this year you're going to need it. My sister is really going to have it in for you. Remember to kick her arse this year. _

_Best of luck._

_-Wood_

"Damn it," James swore under his breath. Daniel Wood was James' quidditch captain the previous year; they beat Ravenclaw, but at the last match Ravenclaw fell short by two quaffle tosses. Emma Wood was Daniel's younger sister and a chaser on the Ravenclaw team who usually played opposite James was responsible for this.

James opened the parcel, only to find Daniel's playbook that the team had built up last year. On the inside there were about a hundred plays, each page dedicated to a separate one, with figures zooming across the page as to see how the plans worked out.

James shook his head. The Woods were legitimately crazy about quidditch, sure Ginny played professionally and still worked in the business, but the Woods lived, breathed, and slept quidditch, they were debatably insane, the lot of them. Yes, this was the same Wood who had played quidditch with Harry Potter.

James often heard stories that his dad had told him about the famous Oliver Wood. They were often insane; Uncle George often made jokes about the various pep talks or speeches as he said. Harry had once told James that Wood was mad, but he was a bloody genius when it came down to it.

* * *

Emma woke up bright and early that summer morning and grabbed a pair of trainers to sneak in a run before breakfast that morning. Her mum and dad would be up soon and they would again, leave for work even sooner. Her brother was currently training for Puddlemere United so he had been in a program this summer, and consequently not at home. Emma took off for the trail by the lake a little ways past her house and she just kept running until she couldn't breathe anymore.

Quidditch had always been a family thing; in fact Emma would say her family was on the border of clinically insane. Even she knew it. She was eyeing a spot at captain this year seeing as the former had left Hogwarts and she was desperately hoping to get it. Sometimes when she was left alone with her thoughts for too long, she would start to go insane and so running helped clear it all out.

She came home that morning to find an owl flying across her kitchen. The large brown bird irritably nipped her finger as she attempted to untie the envelope attached to its foot. She saw familiar handwriting scrawled across in emerald ink with a Hogwarts seal on the back. "Damn it," Emma cursed.

Her hands trembled as she opened the envelope and slid out the multiple pieces of parchment.

_Ordinary Wizarding Level Results _

_Pass Grades: _

_Outstanding (O) _

_Exceeds Expectations (E) _

_Acceptable (A) _

_Fail Grades: _

_Poor (P) _

_Dreadful (D) _

_Troll (T) _

_Emma Kathryn Wood has achieved: _

_Astronomy O _

_Arithmancy O_

_Charms O_

_Defense Against the Dark Arts O _

_Study of Ancient Runes O _

_Herbology O _

_History of Magic E_

_Potions O _

_Transfiguration E _

She read the parchment thoroughly and several times as she took time to absorb her scores. They weren't awful, but she was nearly certain that she had screwed up Transfiguration; she wasn't even sure how she had gotten Exceeds Expectations.

Emma breathed out a sigh of relief as she set down that letter. She leafed through her books for the coming year and her welcome back letter only to find herself still holding two pieces of parchment.

She read the first one which gave her instructions as to where to go regarding prefect duty on the train but the second one came as a bit of a surprise.

_Dear Miss Emma K. Wood,_

_We are pleased to inform you that after due consideration, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had found it appropriate to appoint you Quidditch for the coming year. I hope you will rightfully accept this responsibility and do your house proud. _

_Please regard the badge that is contained with this letter. _

_Sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall _

_Hogwarts Headmistress_

Emma squealed in excitement as she gripped the paper with all her strength and nearly ripped it in half. She took a dive back towards the envelope to find a silver badge with a C on it to match her prefect badge. She couldn't wait to tell her parents when they came home, so she messily scribbled three notes on spare pieces of parchment and attached them back to the owl and sent it on its merry way.

A little while later she received a small note dropped on her head.

_Em—_

_Prepare to lose. _

_Love, _

_-Daniel_

"Bloody hell Daniel," Emma shouted out to no one in particular.

It must be Potter, it had to be, she reasoned. It's not that the two disliked each other, not at all, in fact the two of them got along charmingly. The only thing was that the two of them were equally competitive with one another, they were always pushing each other and at times it could get a bit, well, intense. Emma wondered if Daniel still had his old quidditch plays lying around. She justified searching the house for them with the fact that she just received quidditch captain.

After an hour, with no avail Emma forfeited and settled on writing a thoroughly detailed letter to her friend Audrey. When that didn't really help rid her head of emotions, Emma grabbed her broom and went out into the quidditch pitch her dad had set up in the backyard where she unknowingly flew around for the rest of the day until her mum caller her in for dinner.


	2. 1: The Silver Letter

**A/N: Thank you all for following/favoriting! It means a lot. Please feel free to review as the feedback helps me write faster and that in turn means faster updates (:**

**Disclaimer: I own my characters only. The rest goes to the fantastic JK Rowling**

* * *

_Chapter 1: James_

* * *

"Bye mum, bye dad," James called out to his parents as he dissolved in the crowd before him, "I have to find Aiden, and don't worry mum, yes, I will write to you every week."

"Good," she smiled and gave him a tight hug.

"Alright son, don't worry about me, I'm not nearly as paranoid as your mum," he whispered. Nonetheless Ginny gave Harry a nice elbow to the ribs.

James turned on his heel and faintly heard, "take care of Al and Lily James! We love you!" He shook his head and smiled, he really did have the greatest parents ever. Even though his dad was THE Harry Potter, Harry was his dad first.

"I'll catch you later then Al?" he asked his brother.

"Yeah."

"Lily?" James looked around until he found a patch of red hair bobbing through the crowd. James sighed. Lily could be so headstrong at times it was kind of irritating. It ran in the family he supposed so he didn't say much.

As he parted his way through the crowed he craned his neck looking for Aiden, they were supposed to find a compartment together, and eventually he spotted a spot of light brown hair and found offering a light hug to some girl just outside the train.

While approaching, James noted a large blue bow on the back of her hair. Emma Wood. Emma had this weird thing, she would always tie her hair up with a ribbon or a bow, there were few times when she let her hair completely down, but those were rare times, there was always something to keep the hair out of her face, a small bow barrette keeping the stray hairs pinned neatly to the side of her head.

"Oi Chambers!" James called out as Aiden look towards the source of the sound.

"Potter!" He greeted back, "congratulations!"

"Thanks," James said. Emma was at the time conversing with her best friend, Audrey Ellis, who happened to be in Gryffindor.

"Hello Wood," James greeted Emma, swinging an arm loosely over her shoulder. "Might I offer my congratulations on captain, best of luck this year," he smirked, "Morning Audrey," he nodded to her.

"Hi James," Audrey greeted.

Emma rolled her eyes, "I suppose I must wish you the same Potter, but you actually might need the luck."

"Funny," James said remembering what Daniel had written him.

"Eloquent," Emma teased as she removed James' arm from her shoulder and turned to face him with a slight smile.

"Thank you, much appreciated Em," he said as he studied her. She was about half a head shorter than him and tan skinned from being in the sun; her long brown hair fell in slight waves down her back. Her eyes were a dark brown, there was usually a determined light in them if not an extremely competitive one, or at least that's what James typically noticed. Sometimes Emma wore glasses, but not usually when James saw her out on the field. She had the traces of two dimples on her cheeks that were very cute when she smiled properly. Emma Wood was a very beautiful girl, even though James would rather give up the quidditch cup than admit it. Emma turned and loaded her things onto the train. Aiden and James helped the two girls before putting their own things on and hunting for a compartment. Emma walked in front of them, finding the prefects compartment and Aiden pulled James into an empty one.

"Were you looking to chat up Wood James?"

"Are you a nutter?" James exclaimed. "Wood?"

"Well she seems like your type, and she's psychotic when it comes to quidditch, it's a match made."

"Sod off, although she is quite fit," James conceded.

"I'm going to stop you right there, she is my captain, and my quidditch mate, and like my sister, forgive me before I gag."

James laughed as someone stopped by their compartment. "What's so funny boys?" asked Audrey Ellis. Audrey Ellis was Emma's best friend; she had shoulder length dirty blonde hair and striking blue eyes. She was taller than Emma by an inch or two and she never hesitated to speak her mind.

"Nothing," Aiden said quickly.

"Well I'm going to need to wait in here with you lot because Emma's at her prefect thing, and I actually enjoy your company."

"Works for me," James shrugged. Aiden nodded.

"Audrey, are you commentating again this year?"

"Is that a real question?"

"I suppose not."

"So how were things this summer, travel a lot again?" Aiden asked.

"Not particularly no, I had a very normal summer, you know? Not everything is so quickly paced in a muggle household," Audrey responded. "Can't say the same for you James, you look a bit tan."

"Actually, I didn't do much, spent quite a lot of time with the family, over at the Burrow, then Aiden was over for a week was it? I ran a bit that's all."

"Yeah a week," Aiden chimed.

"Emma also stopped by for a week. It was the most miserable week of my life," Audrey laughed.

"Really now?" the two boys chimed in together.

"She's completely engrossed in quidditch, as if you didn't know that, and she wasn't allowed to fly at all for that week. And she was fascinated by legitimately everything."

"That reminds me of my Grandfather Arthur, the first time he stopped by my dad's house he was so excited by electrical sockets that he told my dad's uncle he collected them. I don't think they ever wanted to see a wizard ever again after that," James faintly recalled the story that his dad once told him about the first time the Weasley's visited his house.

Audrey and Aiden laughed. "Well I can believe that," Audrey smiled, "When my brother was watching the telly, a football match, Emma was so fascinated that there were other sports other than quidditch, I think she almost fainted."

"What the hell is football?" Aiden asked coming from a full wizarding family.

Audrey shook her head, "It's a good thing you're fit Chambers."

"Shut up Ellis," Aiden countered. "Although… thank you?"

James let out a lively laugh.

"Just take the compliment Aiden," Audrey told him, "It's the best you'll do anyways."

"Oh no," James groaned, "Not again."

"Is that a challenge Ellis?"

"Why I think it is."

"Okay then, I can land a bird, faster than you can land a bloke."

"I don't think that—," James attempted to cut in.

"Don't be such a prat Potter," Audrey snapped.

James held up his hands in surrender, "Okay but don't say I didn't try to stop this."

"No you can't, but I'll take that, it's a deal," Audrey put out her hand. Aiden shook it. James rubbed his temples.

"For Merlin's sake, we aren't even at the castle yet. You lot will drive me mental."

"But you love us," Audrey shrugged her shoulder simply. "Anyway, if I win, you'll do my astronomy charts for one month following."

"Fine, and _when_ I win, you'll owe me a favor."

Audrey looked at Aiden skeptically. "You won't, and fine."

"What's fine?" asked someone from the compartment doorway. The three students looked up to find Emma Wood leaning into the compartment.

"Everything is fine, and back so soon Em?" Audrey asked.

"I wish, although unfortunately not. I need to borrow Potter."

James raised an eyebrow, "What can I do for you my little humming bird?"

"Shut it Potter, there's some disagreement over the scheduling, all quidditch captains are required."

"Can you two handle yourselves?" James addressed Aiden and Audrey.

"Not a problem captain," Audrey said cheekily.

"I suppose," Aiden muttered.

"Good." James said as he stepped out and shut the compartment door behind him.

Emma shot him a quizzical look, "What was that—"

"You'd be better off not knowing," James cut her off.

She let off a little laugh, "okay."

James noticed her dimples indent and a very pretty smile appear on her face. He immediately shook his head and opened the door to the prefect compartment and let Emma go in before he followed.

All the prefects waited for the arrival of two remaining quidditch captains and as soon as they arrived, the Head Girl and Boy ran a meeting to work out schedules.

"So there seems to be a conflict of interest for Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, as a matter of fact. Uh, it seems as though both parties have organized for the early sessions."

"Blimey are you joking?" Emma exclaimed, "No one ever wants them!"

"First of all, I prefer the early sessions, that's how Daniel organized practice wouldn't you know. And as for the conflict, it's a pretty easy solution. We'll take three during the morning, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, you can have Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, sound good?"

"Yes but then we'll have to shuffle the rest of the evening schedules around," James heard Emily Flint from Slytherin say.

"Who has the schedule?" Emily asked.

The Head Boy handed over a copy of the schedule for the four captains to pour over.

"When are your rounds scheduled for Wood?" James asked.

"Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at nine," Emma responded.

After much adjustment, moving, switching, and shuffling of the practice times, the four captains were eventually able to come up with a preliminary schedule. They had to account for the prefect schedule as well, seeing as some of the people doubled slots and therefore the whole thing might have gone to pieces if James hadn't realized that he had a record of the previous year's schedule and used that as a model.

"Is that all? And as a reminder I'd like to reiterate that trials are the coming Saturday after term starts, correct?" James asked once they had finally finished the whole scheduling issue. The rest of the captains nodded.

As it turned out, Gryffindor held the pitch Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, Tuesday and Thursday at nine, and Saturdays at three. Ravenclaw booked it for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings, Monday and Friday at seven, Wednesday at five. Slytherin had it consistently at three, Mondays through Saturdays and Hufflepuff took Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at seven, Monday and Friday at noon and Wednesday at seven.

"Yes," said the Head Girl, "in fact, all of you can head back to your compartments, thank you for your time."

All the prefects and captains filed out into the hallway and went their separate ways.

"Huh, I'm impressed Potter, that schedule might actually work."

"Well I do my best," James said with a wink.

"You're going to lose," Emma told him nonchalantly.

"In your dreams Wood," James retorted.

Emma laughed, "It's on."

"You're quite cute when you think you'll win."

"Please James, I know I'll win."

"Oh my bluebird, you are so, so very mistaken."

"James I am not your bird, stop referring to me as a different species every time we have a conversation."

"Eh," James shrugged, "I'll consider the possibility."

Emma shot him a look and James simply smiled. They entered the compartment only to find Aiden and Audrey arguing about something or the other.

Emma offered that they change into their robes and James conceded. He dragged Aiden into the hallway.

"How is it that I was gone for maybe an hour, and you two are at each other's throats," James asked.

"She just pushes my buttons. I reckon she likes me well enough though, it's complicated."

"Okay, sure."

They went back inside and put on their robes, the train soon came to a stop at Hogwarts and everyone piled out of the train. As usual, the four of them took a carriage pulled by the invisible thestrals and made their way to the castle where they were greeted by a magnificent feast. McGonagall found her way over to the Gryffindor table and congratulated James with a small smile.

James found his cousins and his brother and sister, checked in with them and proceeded to return to Audrey and together they made their way back to the Gryffindor common room. James head up to his familiar four poster bed and unpacked his trunk, eager for the coming year.


	3. 2: One Flew Over the Quidditch Pitch

**A/N: Thank you guys for following, it really means a lot! Please please please review! It would make my day. Also a virtual cookie goes to whoever can guess what each title in this story is based off of.**

**Disclaimer: Credit to JKR**

* * *

_Chapter 2: Emma_

* * *

The very next day, the heads of the houses came around with their schedules and passed them out to all the students. As usual, Emma was pleased with her schedule and excited to have Double Potions and Double Herbology with the Gryffindors, she continued to keep her course load, all NEWT level classes of course.

She and Aiden, as it turned out had extremely similar schedules which meant that they would be seeing a lot of each other, Aiden had an extra class that she wasn't taking but that was about it. Audrey was required to drop Divination, not that she had minded. James on the other hand dropped A History of Magic but continued to take the rest of his course load. It seemed as though they would be seeing an awful lot of each other considering those who made it to NEWTs had their classes down to between a dozen and two dozen students from all houses.

The first week of term went by exceedingly slowly. Emma went for a run every morning before breakfast and that had been the extent of the time she did anything remotely physical that week. Needless to say, she was disappointed in herself. Throughout this entire period of time Emma had been eagerly working out plans and the means by which to choose replacements for her quidditch team. The result had been an extremely complex rubric which featured different areas of strength, weaknesses, and how to assess the value of each one.

In short, one could say that Emma Wood was extremely thorough.

This year, all the spots on the team were filled except for two. Emma need two magnificent chasers. They had to play well with her, and they had to be nothing short of amazing. Emma was also aware that James' team was only looking to fill in one spot this year, also for chaser. Slytherin needed a new seeker and beater, and Hufflepuff needed a keeper.

On a bright Saturday morning, Emma walked out into the quidditch pitch after her routine run and just sat on the grass waiting for everyone to arrive. She had her back against one of the goal posts and was redundantly checking parchment rubric she had in her hands over and over again as if to commit it to memory.

She felt someone approaching her from the side, a silhouette blocked the sun and she looked up to find James Potter hovering over her.

"Do you enjoy blocking my sun Potter?"

"Yeah, a bit," James retorted tossing a quaffle in his hand.

He lent her a hand to bring Emma to her feet and she took it. Emma studied him for a moment. James had a lean build, he was slightly cocky, but knew where to draw the line for sure. His dark hair was perfectly messy, if there was such a thing, and his eyes were bright and lively; hazel. He had a very carefree manner about him, mischievous, yes, but very kind at the same time. She noticed that he had become a little tanner than he usually was. In short, James was downright fit. Any girl would have to be blind not to think so.

"What the hell are you doing here Wood? The teams aren't expected to be here for another ten minutes, forget about the newbies."

"I'm just running over some last minute things, speaking of which, what are you doing here Potter?

"I like to come early and throw the quaffle around for a bit. Care to play?" James asked tossing Emma the quaffle.

Emma bit her lip, "Slytherin will be arriving soon, as will the others, we really shouldn't."

"Is Wood actually turning down quidditch?" James feigned surprise, "Well suit yourself." James pulled out his wand, "Accio Firebolt," he muttered and a broom came zooming towards him, which he caught readily.

Two seconds later James was gracefully lifted into the air and soaring throughout the pitch. He tossed the quaffle through the hoops and Emma watched his effortlessness. Why the hell did he have to be so good at quidditch was beyond her.

Emma sighed and picked up the broom and met James at his level. She was a decent keeper, courtesy of her father and fitted herself between James and the goals.

"Well look who decided to play," James jeered.

"Shut up and throw the quaffle," Emma retorted.

"As you wish," James teased.

James shot for the right hoop but Emma was there before he knew it, he smirked and threw it at the middle. Emma knew that he was feeling her style and so she saved that and passed it back to him. He made a loop around the field and then sent one through the left hoop. The two of them went back and forth for quite a bit before Emily Flint came out of the blue and intercepted one of the shots.

"Flint!" Emma shouted.

"Forgive us if we were waiting for two captains to organize trials." Emily said.

Sure enough, looking down on the pitch, a conglomeration of students were staring up at Emma and James.

"Sorry," Emma whispered softly. Her face blushed a faint pink and she lowered her broom to the ground.

"Not bad Wood," she heard James call out to her, "You'd make a fair keeper."

"I'd kick your arse," Emma snapped back.

"I'll hold you to it then," James smiled. He turned to face the crowd and said, "Sorry for the delay, I apologize Flint, you have the field."

Emma and James retreated to the bleachers where they watched the trials for the remaining teams. Strictly this was supposed to be closed trials but the captains had formerly agreed that they could each scout the trials for their own benefits.

Emma brought out a piece of parchment and a quill and began taking notes; she looked over to her left to see that James pulled out a scrap piece of parchment and a quill as well. Emma had a fair idea of how the Syltherin team played; they were trying out seekers as of now. Emma surveyed them, five students trying out for the position. She pushed her glasses up and watched them carefully.

"My money is on the blond fifth year, uh, Davis?" James said, looking out onto the pitch.

"Mmm… yeah, it looks that way anyways, it's who I'd pick. But the other fifth year, Flora Embry, she's decent as well."

"Hmm…" James muttered distantly. The Slytherin trials continued and they next moved to find a beater, there was a third year who had an excellent arm, almost hit James right in the head.

Emma laughed a bit.

"Emma that wasn't funny, it nearly took my head off."

"You're right, you're right, it wasn't funny."

They both then continued taking notes. After a while, Emma's gaze drifted from the pitch onto the boy sitting next to her. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he took vigorous notes, glancing from the field to his parchment. Emma let out a soft laugh.

Without missing a beat, James responded, "finding something funny Wood?"

She shrugged, "perhaps."

At this time the Slytherins cleared the field, Emma heard Flint congratulate the students who tried out and she saw a conglomeration of Ravenclaw students start to make their way onto the field. "I guess that's my cue," she told James.

James smiled at her and waved her off. Emma stepped into the grass and instantly surveyed all the newcomers. She saw her team mixed in with the other and called them aside to brief them. She told them what to look out for and handed them all one of her very complex rubrics. There was Aiden, who served as the team's keeper, Eleanor and Felix Desford served as the beaters, they weren't twins, but they were only a year apart were probably two of the most coordinated pairs that Emma'd ever seen not counting the Weasley's but they weren't really all that human as much as synchronized robots. Alexandra Clearwater served as the team's seeker, she was one of the swiftest and lightest fliers that Emma knew. The response, unanimously from the team included large groans and death stares. Emma simply shot them all a look, and turned to face the hopefuls.

"Afternoon all," she announced in her captain voice, "Today, you lot are hoping to make it onto the quidditch team, now mind you we only have two posts open for chasers, so if you are looking for any other position note that there aren't any at this time. We would love for you to try out next year though, so not to worry."

A couple of students walked away from the crowd with long faces. Emma sympathized with them, but she knew in order to find the best, she had to really concentrate her efforts on those who were determined.

"Alright everyone, now I'm looking for 110% efforts every practice, and just to get it out of the air if you're not willing to go to the bitter end, then you can feel free to leave the team now. Anyone who has previously played on this team can vouch that if you take this lightly, you will be kicked off and replaced, am I understood?"

The young hopefuls nodded.

"She's not kidding everyone, one might even say that Miss Wood here is actually slightly psychotic when it comes to—," Aiden interjected.

"Shut it Chambers."

"I am not going to lie to you, today will be hard, it will resemble almost every practice from here on out, this is just a small taste, if you don't think you can handle it then leave."

A couple of students walked off the pitch and back towards the castle. "Okay, now that I'm understood everyone put your brooms down and give me five laps."

Five laps was reasonable, Emma thought, she ran more than that every morning.

"But this is quidditch," she heard someone complain, "we're supposed to be in the air."

"Would you like to make it six?" Emma threatened. The loud fifth year soon shut up and took to running like the rest of them. Emma turned to her team. "Would you lot like to give them a taste of regular pace?"

"We would love to!" Eleanor and Felix said together.

The rest of the team smiled devilishly and Aiden's smile stretched across his whole face. The four of them took off running and landed themselves at the head of the mob. Emma carefully studied each one, she could tell those who were trying and those who were slacking. She noticed two boys who were in level with the rest of the team, O'Reilly and Walters, Zachary and Daniel respectively, she kept in mind. She made notes on her rubrics and studied them all carefully as they ran.

Minutes later Emma was proud of her team, they broke sweat but none of them were heaving, "Good job you four. Keep this up and Potter's team will not stand a chance."

"Potter will kill you if he heard you," Aiden said cheekily.

Emma glanced over at James who was sat relaxed on the bleachers, taking notes. She swore he winked at her. Emma shook her head and turned back. "Okay grab your brooms everyone, we're breaking you off into two groups."

The ten remaining candidates did so as such and waited for further instructions.

"Group one, you'll be with Chambers and Eleanor. Group two with Clearwater and Felix. You will try to get the quaffle past each of the keepers, in this case Chambers and Clearwater. The Desford's will serve as your beaters, and I will serve as your counterpart chaser because for those of you who are unaware, this is a team sport and everyone must work together, if you can't then there is no room for you. We play as a well oiled machine, communication is key, you don't have to be the best, but if you're willing to learn and work together then that is well enough for me."

Everyone took off into the sky and maintained their positions. Emma flew around, parchment in hand and watched the players, every so often playing along with them. She was leaning towards one of the boys she had labeled earlier, Zachary O'Reilly. He flew well, his aim was dead on, and if Aiden wasn't such a good keeper, he might have been in trouble; he even got three shots in. There was a girl, Jessica Smith who was also a fair chaser; she was small and quick on her broom. The second person she was leaning towards was a young bloke William Davies; he worked well with her and had a knack for feigning his throws.

Emma brought all of them down after a grueling try out. "Good work today everyone, each of you. Well done, really, you all showed me you can persevere and try your hardest. Many of you gave it your all and I am extremely proud, final decisions will be informed via owl, expect a letter soon. The team and I will deliberate and get back to you."

She made her way back to the bleachers as the team dispersed. Emma walked towards James and took a seat next to him. She saw that he had nearly filled up his paper with his messy scrawl and Emma wondered what he could have written. Hufflepuff was next, Emma and James sat together and eagerly watched the trials for their keeper. Only about seven people showed up and it was easy to eliminate three of them. Four of them were quite decent but in the end, Emma bet between two people, a boy about third year, short brown hair and a girl about fifth year, shoulder length auburn hair.

"I guess this is me," James said as he saw his team enter the stadium.

"Good luck Potter, you'll need it."

"Alright Wood, we'll see," he said with a cheeky wink. "Okay everyone, thank you for being here…" Emma heard him start.

He made his way to center field to deliver his speech and then had his team do three laps to warm up. Emma took notes, jotted things down about all the players and then watched James. He ran alongside the players, working his way from those behind to those in front. The entire team was scattered across the field.

Emma saw them all take to the sky. James flew a few laps and Emma found herself unable to take her eyes off of him. She loved watching him fly. He had an effortless essence about him that she really liked. He let out a laugh that rang through the pitch. Anyone could easily say he enjoyed quidditch, they could see it in the way he mounted his broom.

He had split the small group up into two teams, it seemed and James stationed Aaron Stevens, his keeper at one set of rings and Albus Potter at another. James had traded in his quaffle for a beaters bat and so did his other chaser Emmeline Murray. Unusual, Emma thought. He was going to play a game. There were six people trying out, so it worked out, three chasers on each side. James and Emmeline served as one set of beaters opposing Fred and Roxanne Weasley.

Emma noticed a little redhead on the ground, it must have been Lily, James sent her an order and she released the bludgers and tossed up the quaffle which immediately started the game. Emma watched intently, she noticed two of the chasers favored one hand over the other, causing their quaffle to be stolen easily. And another chaser refused to pass it to anyone.

Emma found her gaze shifting towards James every few seconds. "Damn you," she cursed under her breath.

She vigorously shook her head and began filling out rubrics for everyone on his team. She would later cross reference the notes she took with notes from the previous years and see where he would try to fill in the gaps. After some time, James called the game off. Everyone descended to the ground and Emma assumed that James must have thanked them for trying out. She heard a chorus of laughs and rolled her eyes. As all the team members began to walk out. Emma got up from the bleachers and made her way to the center of the field.

Emma walked over to a bent over James Potter who was attempting to get the bludgers back into the case. "Not bad Potter, a decent amount of talent this year," Emma conceded.

"Yeah, well I wouldn't have expected anything less from Gryffindor," he teased. As he stood up, dusting the dirt off of his robes. "So lovely nightingale, shall we head back to the castle?"

"Idiot Potter," Emma muttered.

James laughed and began walking outside of the pitch, broom and quidditch case in hand. Emma grasped her broom as well along with the long scroll of notes she had been taking.

"I'll bet I can choose who you'll put on your team," James said to Emma.

"Is that so? In that case I think I can accurately choose a member of yours," Emma responded picturing a tall blonde boy who she had noted from earlier.

"Fine, we'll both hand our wagers to Ellis, and at the first game, she'll reveal who won."

"Sounds good, and winner, or me, will have the loser, you, buy the other something from Honeydukes."

"It's a deal," James smiled. "I'm going to have to drop this off to Madame Hooch, I'll see you around Wood." James announced once they had reached the castle, "Good night," he said with a curt nod and he and Emma diverged paths.


	4. 3: Of Blushing and Breakfast

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews and favorites! Really it means a lot. The virtual cookie goes to a guest reviewer. Congratulations!**

**Disclaimer: I own little to nothing. **

* * *

_Chapter 3: James_

* * *

It wasn't until about late into the month that James had woken up late for a run. He quietly got out of bed and got dressed as his roommates namely Fred, Aaron and Alex Finnegan were still sleeping.. He walked towards the door and jumped over the third floorboard from the wall considering it had a nasty squeak and made his way outside.

Up until that point, everything had been going smoothly. Both he and Emma had handed in their choices for each others' teams to Audrey who kept them hidden somewhere. Practice had been going great, James had chosen Kate Brooks, a fifth year girl, more on the petite side with long auburn hair who was very light on her broom, she could make turns on a dime and she had excellent aim. James was extremely pleased with his team, although they could be less thrilled about early morning practices, not that James cared.

He knew his team was used to it, the only person that had to adjust was Kate and she was doing a fine job.

Gryffindor had its first match in roughly four weeks, so practices usually lasted longer than expected with James drilling them to perfection. James check the time that Monday morning, it was about five thirty which meant he would have to cut his run short. James groaned. He got out of his four poster bed and got dressed in running shorts, trainers and a light sweatshirt. He headed outside and decided to run the perimeter rather than the field.

The crisp autumn air blew and James could just see the essence of the sun forming over the horizon. His feet began moving mechanically before he knew it James had already reached the lake and stumbled into someone along the way.

"I am so sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going," James said absentmindedly. After shaking himself out of his mechanical daze he looked up and saw exactly who it is he had run into. "Wood? What is my little meadowlark doing up at this time of the morning?"

"James? What are you doing here?" Emma responded.

"I always run in the morning, what's your excuse?"

"No you don't, I run every morning."

"Well I was late this morning, I had to change my route. I've been doing this since fourth year."

"I've been running since fourth year, I have never seen you."

"I told you, I woke up late today."

"Mhmm, okay sure," Emma teased.

"Oh come off it Wood. I only have," James checked his watch, "thirteen minutes until practice starts, would you like to run with me the rest of the way or do you prefer standing here and bickering?"

"Sure, we can run" Emma challenged, "if you can keep up."

James smirked, Emma was something, he didn't think she ever gave anything a rest. The two of them ran to the pitch and tested each other along the way. At times James would pull up in front but Emma wouldn't allow it and pushed herself harder. James noted a competitive glint in her eyes and that it soon dulled after reaching the pitch. The rest of the team had already started warm ups.

"I'll find you tomorrow then?" James asked.

James saw Emma hesitate for a moment as if registering what he had proposed. She then smiled and her dimples indented, "yeah, that would be nice."

"It's a date," James said subconsciously before realizing what had came out of his mouth. He felt the blood rush to his cheeks and he began to stammer, "Sorry—sorry no, not a date—no—I—sorry."

Emma laughed, "I'll see you around Potter," she told him before turning on her heel and jogging back towards the castle.

James shook his head to clear his thoughts before entering the pitch.

"Well well," Fred Weasley teased, "look who decided to show up to practice." The rest of the team was already in the sky flying laps.

"Shut it Fred." James ordered bluntly. He himself mounted his broom and did a couple of laps in the air before addressing the team, "Alright you lot, as you know our first game is in just a couple of weeks. Ravenclaw takes Hufflepuff this weekend and we take Slytherin in four. So we are going to drill to perfection."

"Yes captain," Roxanne mocked.

"Very funny Roxanne."

"Thanks Jamsie," Roxanne smirked.

James split up the lot, he sent Albus out with the snitch and had him time how fast he could catch it. Roxanne and Fred hit the bludgers back and forth, drilling each other while James, Kate and Emmeline worked on different flying formations and played them against Aaron.

"Brooks," James said stopping the play. He flew over to her, noticing that she was struggling throwing left handed. "Murray, Stevens, break," he ordered.

"Yes James?" Kate asked.

"When you aim, I want you to extend your arm fully, it'll give your throw better accuracy and more power, got it?"

"Yeah," Kate smiled. He tossed her a quaffle.

"Okay, now aim for me every time." He flew to various places and asked Kate to throw the quaffle to him. She struggled a bit at first, but after some coaching from James she soon got the hang of it and he saw her improving. "Excellent, great job, now just remember this for our match and you'll do brilliantly."

"Thank you," said Kate.

"Stevens," James called. The sixth year made his way over to James. He was a good looking bloke, short cropped blonde hair and a lean build, perfect for his position as keeper.

"Yah?"

"Work on left hand passes with our fledgling will you?"

"No problem," he said flashing a large grin at Kate, "you're in good hands Brooks."

James watched the rest of his team, he asked Roxanne and Fred to throw the bludger and had Emmeline dodge them. Practice flew by, and by the time he checked his watch, he noted that they ran ten minutes late. "Brilliant job today you lot, we're done for today, keep up the great work and we'll flatten Slytherin next month."

James watched as the rest of his team went into the changing rooms, he walked back towards the castle and stopped in front of the Fat Lady, "password," she requested.

"Baubles," James said as the portrait door opened he walked into the common room. He grabbed his things from upstairs and walked towards the prefects' bathroom.

He stopped in front of the fourth door to the left of Boris the Bewildered and said "pinewood," suddenly the door opened and the air was filled with the unmistakable scent of lilacs. It had become quite routine, James had to say, every morning before he meant to take a bath there would be the irritating smell of lilacs that consumed the entire bathroom. "Oh Merlin," he muttered. He also noticed a pair of familiar blue running shorts, one a girl might wear still on the ledge of the tub. Someone must have left them here, he figured.

He walked towards the bath. The taps all run different-coloured bath water, soap bubbles, and foam. These bath taps are a hundred golden taps surrounding the whole pool-like tub, with a different jewel set in each tap. James opened up maroon colored tap and waited for the tub to fill. James pulled his shirt off and tossed it on the floor. He sat on the ledge and massaged his temples the odor was definitely getting to him. Just then he heard a voice getting louder as it approached, "swear I left them here."

James looked up to find a one, Miss Emma Wood standing in front of him, her hair slightly damp and tied up in a messy ponytail with of course, her signature ribbon, today it was a bright pink.

She seemed to have finally registered what she was in the process of walking into because she spotted James who looked up at her as her eyes widened in horror.

James smirked upon looking at a flustered Emma, the blood had rushed to her cheeks and her face now matched the pink of the ribbon in her hair. He grabbed the shorts and tossed them to her, "Looking for these my Goldfinch?"

She didn't seem to register what he had said but her chaser instincts were definitely enough to have her reach out and catch them, "Oh gosh, I'm—I'm—sorry. So sorry Potter. I, um, I—door—I'll go now," Emma squeaked in a small voice.

James laughed at her uncomfortable state. "Relax Wood. You didn't see anything," he winked. "Besides I'm sure you've seen members of your team without their shirt on, I'm fairly certain I'm still wearing my pants."

Emma refused to meet James' gaze, he noted. She closed her eyes, scrunched up her nose in a very cute manner and shook her head before blurting out, "Shut up smart arse. Well my team is like family, of course I'm used to it, they're my like my bloody brothers."

James looked surprised, and stated slowly, "So does that mean that-,"

She must have realized what she insinuated because Emma then cut James off, "no—no—no Potter, wipe that smirk off your face—that's not what I meant—shut it."

James couldn't help but enjoy throwing Emma off, it was a very difficult thing to do, she was always so composed. James watched her turn around on her heel very quickly and muttered something to the tune of "Git, enjoy your bath," as she left the bathroom. He smiled at her retreating figure and very well did enjoy his bath before making his way down for breakfast.

The ceiling of the Great Hall that morning shone a pale blue that were filled with big puffy clouds that made one want to perhaps exalt with joy or skip across the grass.

He found Aiden and Audrey sure enough, bickering. Emma sat across for both of them, leaving James to take the empty seat beside her. As it did turn out, Aiden and Audrey both landed someone on the same day and neither were willing to give out to the other. Audrey actually dated a bloke from Hufflepuff for a little bit and she had broken it off just a couple of days previously. Aiden on the other hand had taken the girl on one date when they decided that it wouldn't go further than that.

This bickering had become quite a regular thing but James always wondered when Aiden and Audrey would just drop it and start snogging.

James dropped down on the bench and began filling his plate. "Morning Chambers, Audrey."

They took a moment to say hello to James and tried to drag him into the argument that he refused to be a part of, "sorry kids, you're on your own."

Emma was currently in the midst of lecturing Felix Desford, one of her beaters on proper bludger etiquette. He looked quite bored in James' opinion as if he'd heard the lecture multiple times so James took it upon himself to do the poor bloke a favor.

"Hey Wood!" he said. Emma jumped and turned to face him, Felix mouthed a thank you to James, which James returned with a nod, before taking off and returning back to his breakfast.

"Potter," she responded, now staring at the bacon lying on her plate which she seemed to find extremely fascinating.

"So I take it your match is this weekend?"

She looked up and met his eyes for the first time, "I—yeah why?"

James exclaimed, "Well it looks like you'll owe me some Bertie Botts from Honeydukes this Hogsmeade."

"Arse. Of course, because you're oh so humble," she replied sarcastically.

"Thank you Turtle Dove," James winked.

Emma simply rolled her eyes and turned to the girl sitting next to her, Violet? James faintly remembered seeing her around. "Oi Ellis, Chambers," he called out.

They both looked up at him, "Would you two shut up already and be civil or I'll hex you into next term."

He began to tuck into his bacon and eggs which were piled on his plate, James noticed that they sat there quietly before Audrey said to James, "you're so lucky I like you Potter."

James simply smiled cheekily at her. They saw Professor Longbottom coming to greet them, "Morning Uncle Neville!"

"Ah James! Good morning, I hope your classes are going well?" he smiled. "I've been seeing Lily around quite a bit, she's doing charmingly in Herbology. You're mum also wrote me thought, she said she hadn't received a letter from Professor McGonagall yet, she's just wondering if you're all right."

Aiden and Audrey broke out into laughter and James quickly silences them with a glare. He assured Neville that everything was fine, and that he'd just become extremely busy with practices but he did assure Neville that he intended on sending his mum a sink from the prefect bathroom.

Neville laughed and proceeded to the teacher's table where he took his seat alongside professor McGonagall who caught his eye and sent him a stern smile.

"Excellent mate," Aiden chimed. "When do we get to invade the bathroom?"

"Eh about four weeks from now."

"Sounds good," Aiden smiled devilishly.

"The entire male species is a bunch of nutters!" Audrey exclaimed exasperatedly.

"Essentially," agreed Emma who now turned to face James. "And Potter, you might want to hurry up Potions starts in about fifteen minutes and we need to go down into the dungeons."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," he grabbed his books from his floor and the four students got up and made their way to Professor Corner's class.

Their potions class had been greatly downsized to about eighteen students who James had gotten to know very well by that point.

"I hate this path, I hate the dungeons, they're putrid and always cold," complained Audrey.

"Well it seems as though you'd fit in perfectly," snapped Aiden.

"Shut up," Emma scolded.

"Yes mum," the Aiden and Audrey said in unison. The four students took a seat at their respective spots and waited for the professor to enter.

"Morning all, sorry I'm late!" he greeted. Professor Corner was a bubbly middle aged witch who was a bit eccentric but likable enough.

"Good morning Professor," the class greeted lackadaisically.

"Surely I'm not boring you already, up on your feet everyone. Gather around," Corner directed towards the cauldron in the front of the room. James peered inside to find a cauldron filled with a liquid the color of lilac, pearly wisps of steam coming off of it.

"Who can tell me what this is?" Corner asked.

A Slytherin raised her hand and said, "Drought of Living Death?" in an unsure voice.

"Yes! Precisely Miss Brown, ten points to Slytherin, excellent, now would you care to tell us what it does?"

James racked his brains, it seemed familiar, he had definitely come across it before, just as the Slytherin girl spoke it came to him, it induced a sleep like state in the drinker, it was extremely dangerous.

Corner gave out another ten points and took a leaf off of a plant nearby and told the class to watch. As she dropped the leaf into the cauldron it disintegrated, burning at the touch. "This is one of the more complex potions you lot will come across, I am willing to offer fifty points to the first person to create a successful potion."

Everyone was sent on their way. James worked with Aiden and Emma with Audrey. James pulled out his copy of Advanced Potion making and flipped to the appropriate page, "cut up a Sophorus bean, ow! What the hell?" he exclaimed as something hit the side of his face.

"Oops, sorry Potter, that was the bean," Aiden pointed to a jumpy brown lump that was extremely difficult to cut. James looked around, only to notice everyone else struggling as well. The beans were flying all across the room and a chorus of 'Accios' went around as well.

Aiden placed the bean on the table and took out his wand, tapped the bean and muttered, "Exposime."

"Sticking charm, clever," James commended him. They were able to cut the bean with ease and reversed the spell, moving on to the next step. Eventually a bluish steam filled the air in the dungeon. Everyone was furiously working on their potions hoping to get it just right. Aiden and James were having their fair share of problems however, they accidentally stirred it one too many times counterclockwise and instead of achieving a blackcurrant color, their potion was a deep shade of violet.

Once they added the juice from the bean however, their potion turned a very pale shade of aquamarine which was close enough to lilac in James' opinion.

Corner called time and walked around assessing each of the potions. As far as James could tell no one had managed to brew the potion perfectly as many of the students seemed distressed and worried. Professor Corner nearly skipped to James and Aiden's table and gushed, "marvelous job boys, it is extremely close, well done!"

"Thank you professor," they both said together. James turned around to see Corner also commending Emma and Audrey on their superb job, seeing as they had turned their potion a pale baby pink, supposedly the closest out of anyone.

"I think she's lost it," Aiden whispered under his breath.

James looked at his professor carefully before completely agreeing with him.

"Well done everyone, the closest drought was made by Miss Wood and Miss Ellis," Corner announced and as James had expected, "and therefore they each receive fifty points for their houses. Now for homework I want you to note what you did wrong and write ten inches on how this can be avoided in the future," she said in a sickeningly chipper voice.

And so it begins, thought James as he braced himself for the rest of the year.


	5. 4: The Strange Case of Aiden and Audrey

**A/N: Thank you everyone for the kind reviews, it really means a lot! Also keep up the great work, your follows/favorites/reviews really help me spin out the next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: Everything to JK Rowling**

* * *

_Chapter 4: Emma_

* * *

Emma didn't want to come down that Sunday morning, not at all, in fact she would much rather prefer to sit in her dormitory all day curled up into a ball. She was essentially a bundle of nerves. The first match of the season and Emma was nervous, to say the least. She grudgingly pulled herself together and made it to breakfast. She even skipped that morning's run and that was extremely unlike her.

"Emma! You should be down at breakfast by now!" Violet, the girl she'd been sharing a dormitory with told her.

"Yeah, you should get down there," she heard her other roommate call, Charlotte McKinnon.

"I'm going," she muttered hesitantly, "Thanks Vi, and yeah, I'm heading down there Charlotte."

"We'll come with you!" Charlotte volunteered.

Emma shot them a funny look. She loved her roommates, she really did but they were acting strangely ever since she had arrived this year. "Please tell me what is going on," Emma insisted.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing," Violet insisted a little too quickly, "now let's get down there captain, we have a game to win."

After quickly grabbing a blue ribbon and tying her hair up, she met her roommates in the common room. It had graceful arched windows, and the walls were hung with blue and bronze silks. The domed ceiling is painted with stars, which are echoed in the midnight-blue carpet. Tables, chairs, and bookcases cover the expanse of the floor, and a white-marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw sits next to the door that leads to the dormitories which Emma had previously exited.

Extremely tentatively, Emma led the way down Ravenclaw tower, climbing the tight spiral staircase as she and her roommates made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. Before entering, Emma took in a deep breath. She walked in, her mind geared on the game.

"I'll catch you guys later?" she called out to them.

They had said something back but Emma hadn't heard it, for the statement had been overshadowed by a chorus of giggles concerning Merlin knows what.

Walking to her seat she was meat by many good lucks and all the bests, she smiled patiently, replied respectfully and tried to keep her nerves in order.

She sat down, finding a spot next to Audrey this morning, opposite from Aiden who stared emptily at a neatly filled plate of porridge and bacon that Audrey must have served him. Aiden never was one for the first game of the season. Emma didn't blame him. She noted the absence of James at the table, the place he usually sat was currently vacant, it seemed as though the ghost of his laughter still resonated there because Emma swore she could hear his carefree chortle echo through the Hall.

As Emma began piling some toast and a bit of marmalade onto her plate, she failed to notice someone slide into the previously unoccupied seat.

"Emma Wood!" said a voice. Emma turned to face the stranger and nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Luke!" she squeaked.

Luke Evans was essentially the quintessential human being. A sixth year Ravenclaw, he was kind, sweet, funny and extremely good looking. He had these bright blue eyes and light brown almost blonde hair and perfect jaw line and a really nice olive complexion and it was quite fantastic for a young woman of her age to simply look at him. So when he came up to her that morning, Emma was nothing short of stunned and/or potentially tongue tied when he came to talk to her although throughout sixth year, so far Emma had noticed a steady pattern in which Luke would talk to her every so often and she would stay there gaping like a daft person.

"I just wanted to wish you luck on the match today," he said kindly, "I'm sure you'll do brilliantly."

"Th-thank you," Emma managed to stutter.

He got up and kissed her lightly on the cheek, offering her a sly wink before making his way back to the other end of the table. As if she wasn't flustered enough she turned to face Audrey who was staring at her with wide eyes.

"OhmygawdEmma!" she squealed, as occasionally teenage girls are known to squeal.

Emma picked up a piece of toast that had fallen on the table and chucked it at the blonde sitting across from her.

Aiden rubbed his ear before smirking and teasing her, "Nice catch captain."

"Shut it," Emma threatened.

"But-but-but Em, he's so gorgeous, have you even looked at him properly?" Audrey was practically yelling.

"Dammit Audrey. Would you like all of Hogwarts to hear you?"

"Sorry," she muttered unapologetically. "I reckon he'll ask you out soon," she said in a sickeningly lovesick voice.

Emma felt the blood rush to her cheeks, "I'm going to go now. Aiden are you coming?"

"Uh yeah," Aiden asked.

"Good luck Em," Audrey said giving her friend a quick hug. She nodded stiffly towards Aiden who was just as unenthused, gave her a curt nod back.

They'd been odd this week, Emma noted, they were fighting more than usual and it was typical of things to blow over pretty quickly. However, in this case the two were very caught up on something and Emma had no idea what it was.

"Thank you Audrey," Emma smiled. "Aiden," Emma started shooting him a look.

"Don't worry about it," he muttered through clenched teeth.

"Aiden!" she exclaimed sternly.

"Seriously, don't bother, it's nothing."

"Damn it Chambers, don't tell me it's nothing."

Aiden sighed, "It's a row, I'm not sure lately, I think that actually I might…" the rest of his statement was cut abruptly.

Suddenly, an eruption came from the front of the hall. With a large boom Emma witnessed two silver creatures sparkle and fly out in silver flames. One was an eagle and the other a badger. They teased and taunted each other as the sparkling flames flew in the air. The students all looked up in awe and some began to laugh. Pretty soon the animals grew inside, covering the pale blue sky featured in the ceiling and casting a temporary shadow over all the students.

The sparklers fizzled and with a loud pop, the looming figures dissolved and showered glittering sparks down onto the students that disappeared before they landed on anything and/or anyone.

Another bang was let out soon after and this time a series of fireworks shot up into the ceiling, they stood in place forming the words one by one: FROM GRYFFINDOR QUIDDITCH TEAM TO RAVENCLAW AND HUFFLEPUFF.

Cheers erupted throughout the hall and it was evident that the Gryffindor quidditch team had done its part in helping rile the students before the match; however, they hadn't helped one bit in calming her nerves.

Typical Potter though, Emma acknowledged, of course he would do something like this. James had a, bit of a reputation at Hogwarts, a knack for mischief along with Aiden, usually. Although this time Emma supposed Aiden was out of the loop. James always pulled pranks throughout the school, they were more entertaining than anything, and they weren't ever at anyone's expense.

"Potter," Emma whispered under her breath. And as if he was summoned, James appeared in Emma's sight, a cocky smile plastered on his face.

"Nice mate," Aiden said to James giving him a nice pat on the shoulder. "How'd you do it?"

"'Member the Silver Sparkling Snakes, well I tinkered with those a bit."

"Hmph," Aiden huffed, "you could have at least clued me in."

"Well it is from our team to yours, there wouldn't have been much fun in it otherwise" said a lanky red head to Aiden. They did the signature boy hand, fist, chest thing that Emma had never understood.

"I suppose Fred," Aiden responded.

"Oh and the crystal incantation comet of course," James added.

"Of course! That was a given," Aiden conceded. Boys will be boys, Emma supposed.

"Love to stay and chat with you boys, but we really should get going," Emma insisted.

"Well good luck," James said. He shot a nod at Aiden, and they had one of those weird silent conversations, and Aiden shot James a look back.

Emma walked out towards the pitch and Aiden soon caught up to her, "So what is it you were saying before James happened?"

"Uh… nothing, it's uh, complicated," Aiden told her.

Emma remembered talking to Audrey as well on the issue, she would never give her a straight answer either, she knew both of them liked the other but neither was willing to admit it. Audrey would simply said that Aiden was a daft idiot at times and Aiden would say that Audrey was being a pain in the arse. Emma learned not to question it.

The two of them went into the changing room where Alexandra and Eleanor were already in their Quidditch robes, Emma and Aiden did the same and by the time they were done the rest of the team had arrived and were in the middle of changing as well.

"Conditions are fair," Zachary noted, "Desford, please smack Abbot in the head for me please?"

"I'll do my best," Felix responded with a wicked grin.

Emma laced her boots and sighed. She felt a chill run down from her spine to her toes. This would be the first time that the rest of Hogwarts saw what she could do. She gained her nerves under control and shook them off, the adrenaline coursed through her veins. She was a Wood after all, she was practically born to fly.

"Alright you lot, we've worked long and hard and you've done me proud. Hufflepuff always plays fairly, so we can use that to our advantage. Desfords, keep them busy with the bludgers, but don't aim for anywhere important," Emma shot them a look as she recalled an incident from last year when an unfortunate fellow ended up in the Hospital wing after El hit him in the family jewels. "Chambers, stay focused," she said seriously. He was especially quiet this morning and despite everything he needed to leave it behind him and play a hundred percent. "O'Reilly and Davies, welcome to the team, you've been training hard, and I believe this year we've got it. We nearly had it last year," Emma paused, she remembered the memory, two damn quaffle throws and it would have been their trophy. "and this year we can show this school what I see in all of you."

The team stood behind Emma as they opened the door from the changing room and walked out onto the pitch. The crowd roared and cheered, the stadium filled with a sea of bronze and blue clashing with black and yellow.

Emma stepped up to the center Madame Hooch was going to be releasing the balls from the crate. She took a look at the Hufflepuff Captain, Creevey as Hooch announced it was time for them to shake hands. Emma mounted her broom. A beautiful Nimbus series, an antique, it was her father's old one that he had kept in perfect condition.

She kicked off of the ground and into the air, flying straight for the quaffle. She grabbed it just a hair of a second before Creevey did and tossed it to O'Reilly who was right behind her.

"And they're off," A familiar sound greeted Emma's ears as Audrey voice boomed throughout the stadium from the magic megaphone. "Wood comes in with a brilliant steal, so close Creevey but not quick enough, she quickly passes it to O'Reilly, what a good looking bloke with lovely green eyes-,"

"Ellis!" Emma faintly heard McGonagall shout.

"Sorry Professor," she mumbled.

Emma flew by Zachary, who must have been dealing with his own case of nerves, first game and all, he fumbled with the quaffle which was gathered by Otterburn. Emma turned her broom around and went straight below him. Fortunately El saw what was happening and directed a bludger straight for his back which he dodged easily. Zach and Will came up on either side of him and tried to grab the quaffle but they were already too close to the goal posts. He took a swing and Aiden tried to stop it but it brushed his fingers and went through the hoop.

"And Chambers lets the quaffle through the post just as many other things fly by in his life," Emma heard Audrey announce nastily. Whatever the problem was it clearly wasn't resolved and Emma speculated that it was only going to get worse.

"Dammit," Emma hit her broom handle and repositioned. She looked up and saw Alexandra scouting the field for the snitch.

The came continued and twenty minutes later the game was at fifty to sixty Hufflepuff. O'Reilly and Davies were doing an excellent job. Emma had scored three of the six goals, but the two of them adjusted to the rest of the team fantastically.

Aiden on the other hand wasn't doing as great, El and Felix had managed to keep the Hufflepuffs out of their side of the field but clearly he was distracted. He blanked on easy passes and blocked only two of the incoming goals. It wasn't helping that Audrey was tearing him apart verbally either. Emma had faintly heard comments like, "And Chambers has done it again," and "Not to our surprise, Chambers loses and easy throw and fails to help the Ravenclaw team letting Hufflepuff takes the lead, you'd think that big head was good for something but clearly not".

She had made level headed Aiden angry, and it wasn't exactly an easy thing to do. As a result he was unable to perform to even half his regular ability.

Emma cursed under her breath and shouted to Will, "Oi, Davies, you and O'Reilly okay?"

He simply nodded and understood, he didn't argue, which Emma quite liked about him and signaled Zach. Emma turned her broom around and addressed Aiden at the keeper position.

"Go talk to her," she shouted over the roaring crowd, the Hufflepuff keeper had evidently saved a goal.

"I can't just leave!"

"I'll keep for you!" Emma told him. "Go! Now!" she ordered.

After an exchange, Emma was now playing keeper, from the corner of her eye, she watched as Aiden flew to the commentator's box. "Wood subs in as keeper, for good reason too. Holt passes to Otterburn who passes it back, O'Reilly steals, the green eyed beauty dodges a nasty bludger but drops the quaffle. Back in the hands of— bloody hell Chambers," she announced a little too loudly.

Emma couldn't pay attention to what was happening seeing as Holt decided to throw the quaffle, which she easily saved, the crowd roared and she could faintly make out the argument between the two.

"Damn it Audrey, you make my life miserable."

"Really? Is that so? Because the last time I checked, it was best for both of us so why don't you just drop it?"

Aiden laughed a bit manically, "Is that your idea of pulling my leg? I tried to drop it, I tried a thousand times."

At this point they didn't even try to cover up their argument as the magic megaphone did not seem content in lessening the row. The entire stadium was holding its breath. Not a single person moved from their positions. Even the game had come to a halt.

"You make my life a living hell, do you realize that?" Audrey shouted. "It's so damn painful. Every single time."

"You think you have it so hard? Well it's hard for me too."

"You're insufferable, you're such a cocky bastard, do you really expect everything to be all right?"

"Stop hiding under that façade," Aiden said his face inching closer to hers. They were both red at this point, Emma reckoned he whispered something along the lines of, "I can see right through it."

Audrey huffed in annoyance.

"But for some incomprehensible reason, and I'm not joking when I say this. I-I goddamn fancy you Audrey."And before anyone in the stadium could register what was going on, Aiden lifted a hand off his broom, closed the gap between him and Audrey and kissed her, two seconds of confusion later she was kissing him back. The entire stadium erupted into cheers and applause as the two continued snogging. Emma even saw Aiden's broom dip down before he was able to steady it again.

"Alright, alright, that's quite enough," Professor Longbottom made his way down to the commentator's box. Hogwarts' newest couple broke apart smiling before Aiden turned around and took his hold at the goals.

"So without further interruption," Madame Hooch announced eyeing Aiden who smiled unapologetically, "please continue."

Seconds later the game continued as if it had never stopped. The rest of the game was progressing smoothly. Aiden was performing at a hundred and ten percent. It was very interesting what a good snog could do to change the dynamic of one's inner happiness.

Fifteen minutes and thirty nine seconds later, the crowd erupted into cheers, "Clearwater has caught the snitch," Audrey announced, "Ravenclaw wins two hundred and twenty to seventy!"

The team made its way down to the pitch; Emma was bombarded with plenty of hugs and congratulations. She was absolutely ecstatic. She felt a few tears cloud her eyes which she managed to blink away. It was her first victory as captain and if they continued to play this way, they could certainly win the cup.

The students began to break up and return to the castle a few minutes later. Emma knew there would be some kind of celebration in the common room later that evening.

When there were only a handful of people left on the pitch, Emma spun around to someone calling her name.

"Oi Wood!"

She saw James Potter escorting a very pretty girl with long auburn hair and a simple yellow sundress making their way towards her. He stopped by Aiden and Audrey who were at the time glued to each other. He pulled out his wand and Emma saw him mutter what must have been "Carpe Retractum," because in the next minute he had successfully torn Audrey away and brought her to his side.

"What the hell Potter!" Adien shouted.

"Sorry mate, a bit of business to attend to, you'll have her back in the next couple minutes. Take a breather while you're at it," James teased.

"Potter!" Audrey exclaimed, "I'm not an object, you can't just summon me whenever you'd like."

"It's a matter of very important business!"

"Classy Potter," Emma told him.

"Why thanks love, and might I offer my congratulations."

"Thank you," Emma rolled her eyes.

"I'd like to introduce you to someone," James announced. He ushered the girl with pretty auburn hair in front of him. "Wood, I'd like for you to meet Kate Brooks."

"Hi," Emma offered politely, "Are you two…?"

James laughed, "no, but would it bother you if it was?" He winked cockily.

"Excuse me Potter, but does this have a point?"

Kate offered a hello and shot a look of confusion at James, he bent over and whispered something that Emma didn't quite catch and she nodded with understanding walking back out into the crowd.

"As you recall, not too long ago we made a wager-,"

"Damn it!" Emma yelled in realization.

"Parchments please," James asked Audrey.

She rolled her eyes and grabbed two pieces of paper from her robes. "Potter will pick Finnegan."

Emma cursed under her breath, "but there's no way in hell you chose mine."

"Emma Wood will choose Davies and O'Reilly," Audrey read out trying not to laugh. "Nice, Potter."

"Why thank you Miss Ellis." Before he had finished that statement, she already disappeared to find Aiden no less.

"Well it looks like I'll be seeing you at Honeydukes," James said cheekily.

Emma stood there with her mouth agape, fishing for words that would not arrive. James had long turned on his heel and left the pitch and the euphoria that Emma felt slowly faded into petty anger for James.

"Arse," she shouted once words again chose to grace her. Unfortunately for Emma, the statement was long overdue and a rather quizzical looking third year walked away from her wondering just what it was that he had done wrong.


	6. 5: To Flee or Not to Flee

__**A/N: I seriously apologize for the delay, but now that school is over I can write and update more frequently. Yayyy! I hope you guys are enjoying your summer, thanks for reviewing, favoriting and all that (:**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

* * *

_Chapter 5: James_

* * *

James felt as though the next couple days went by incredibly slowly. Every morning he had come down to a snogging Aiden and Audrey, not that he didn't love them, but after the first ten minutes that they were joined at the mouth, it became a bit much.

"Morning Wood," James said joining the three of them for breakfast. The breakfast table was more crowded than usual seeing as McGonagall had requested that they all bring their animals to class that morning.

James brought through a rattling cage with a beautiful barred owl inside it. She had russet feathers mixed in among the white with a sweet disposition. Harry had bought her for James when he first started Hogwarts, he had named her Aura.

Aiden also had an owl named Hermes, after the god of travelers in Greek mythology. He was a large tawny owl who was always a bit klutzy but a character no less.

Audrey too had an owl. She had a magnificent barn owl named Theseus who was a bit of spitfire. He loved Audrey though.

Emma was the only one out of the four who had gotten a cat. She had named her Eva and she was a majestic looking cat, James had to admit. She was a gray Bengal meaning she had markings which resemble that of a snow leopard, but Eva was the friendliest cat that James had ever come across.

"Potter," she nodded curtly.

James sat down and scratched Eva behind her ears and in response James was greeted with a pleasant meow. "At least you give me a proper greeting in the morning," James spoke to the cat.

Emma shot him a look which he chose to ignore.

As James piled a slice of oatmeal, two slices of toast, plenty of scrambled eggs and bacon and began diving in.

"How long—," James started in reference to the snogging couple.

"Before I got here," Emma finished. She turned to her side striking up a conversation with her roommate once again about the importance of flicking the wand precisely thirty seven degrees upwards when it came to the color switching spell or something equally as dreary.

James sighed deeply into his breakfast before getting up and finding his sister giggling amongst her friends.

"Morning Lils," James greeted, "would you do me a favor and-,"

"Write to mum for you?" she asked in her typical know it all voice.

James beamed and ruffled his sister's hair before kissing her forehead, "thanks Lil, you're the best."

She shot him a nasty look and in a very snooty manner began ticking off a list on her fingers, "First of all I never said I'd do it."

James raised an eyebrow.

Lily stuck her tongue out and continued, "Okay so say I'll do it. Secondly, I'm not five, don't ruffle my hair or kiss my forehead."

He heard a chorus of laughter of third year girls as Lily said so.

"And lastly, I expect reimbursement, payment for my services."

"You devil child," James accused, "I'm not sure about the second one though."

Lily shrugged, "Take it or leave it,"

"How do five chocolate frogs sound," James bartered.

Lily seriously considered it before grabbing James' tie and pulling him down to her level. "Fine, and James, please leave me alone. For some reason all my friends are loony, for some forsaken reason they think you're-," Lily struggled to find the word, "fit," she finally blurted out. "The most bloody disgusting thing I've ever heard!" she exclaimed in fury.

"Well you know Lils-,"

"No I don't know," she replied harshly. "I don't want to know. I don't want to hear it, I don't want to know anything."

James wasn't listening; he was too busy pushing his sister's buttons. "I am rather good looking."

Lily covered her ears and shut her eyes. Her friends gawked at James and not before long Emma Wood turned to see what the commotion was.

"What the hell did you do to her Potter?" she scolded.

James stood with the trace of a smirk on his face before sweetly mocking his sister, "Oi Lilykins, why don't you tell Emma love what the problem is."

Lily slowly uncurled her fingers from her ears and took a deep breath as if preparing for a death defying stunt of some sort instead of admitting that she had an attractive brother, which in James' opinion was only slightly short of humorous.

Emma raised an eyebrow, "What is it Lily? What did the arse do this time?" she asked concernedly.

"Hey!" James protested.

"He's reveling in the fact that every girl practically fawns over him because he's so fit," Lily said almost gagging.

James swore that he saw Emma's mouth tighten into a thin line and her eyes go wide, but within a blink of an eye the expression was gone and Emma snapped, "Don't think so highly of yourself Potter, you're not as fit as you'd like to think."

"Huh?" James said surprised at her reaction. "Is that so Wood?"

With a slight moment's hesitation she answered a solid, "Yes Potter."

"Well I know one thing's for sure."

"And what's that?"

"You never denied the fact that you think I'm fit."

Emma sputtered, "that has no correlation to the conversation Potter."

Lily rolled her eyes, "Merlin," she muttered.

"What!" the two agitated sixth years shouted.

"Nothing," Lily said devilishly.

"Lily I swear-,"

"Shut up James I have class, in more ways than one, so pardon me if I'm not keen on vomiting my breakfast." And with that Lily left the table and flounced out of the Great Hall, her fiery red head standing out among the rest of the students'.

"So honestly Wood."

"Yes Potter?" she asked now standing up from her spot on the table. She fiddled with the ribbon in her hair, pulling it out. She let brunette locks tumble down her back forming beautiful curls. She sighed before taking her wand out of her robes and tapping the ribbon twice, making it a small bow which she used to keep stray hairs from her face.

James shook his head and cleared his thoughts, "You can honestly say that you don't find me fit at all?"

Emma stood rigidly.

Fortunately or unfortunately, however one chooses to assess the situation, the bell rang commencing the beginning of the first class of the day.

"I," Emma started as she grabbed her books, "do not have time for this. Oi!" Emma snapped her fingers in front of Audrey and Aiden, "transfiguration starts in ten minutes, hurry up unless you'd like to face an angry McGonagall."

James chuckled to himself and grabbed his bag and owl before making his way out of the great hall with his friends.

"Aiden!" James exclaimed in happiness at the sight of his best friend not attached to Audrey.

"James!" Aiden reciprocated in the same tone. James grabbed Aiden's arm and slapped him on the back.

"Morning Chambers."

"Morning Potter."

"Maybe one day he'll look at you that way Audrey!" Emma sounded sarcastically.

"Ay! Shut it will you!" James and Aiden snapped.

Audrey giggled and kissed Aiden lightly on the cheek. She sighed dramatically, "Maybe one day."

They walked into McGonagall's classroom with ten seconds to spare and James swore that she shot him a stern but approving look.

"As you know, this year we will be focusing largely on human spells. Now if you would all take out your books, we will be studying Multicofors this year," McGonagall began her lecture.

James loved McGonagall, and although she punished him, took points away from him, and scolded him, he always felt as though she had a place in her heart just for him.

McGonagall droned on about the importance of distinguishing the differences between human manipulation and natural manipulation of features as James soon zoned out. He fiddled through his bag and sought out a scrap piece of parchment.

Aiden, as usual was busy taking vigorous notes. He turned around behind him to find that Emma was doing the same. Audrey on the other hand, was fidgeting in her seat and attempting to stay awake.

James sighed and dipped his quill in the ink bottle next to him. He began marking plays with X's and O's as they conglomerated the parchment eventually finding their way to the goal posts. Under every letter was a messily scrawled name dictating each respective player. James became extremely occupied in the play and it wasn't until he received a nasty elbow to the ribs did he perk up with a "Bloody hell Aiden," that was loud enough for the entire room to hear.

The comment was met with much snickering from the rest of the students and James shot his friend a nasty look.

"Sorry Mister Potter, that's incorrect" Professor McGonagall said in a stern voice clearly not amused.

"My apologies professor, can you repeat the question?"

"Would you care to demonstrate turning your owl into an opera glass?"

"Err…" James stated eloquently as he tried to process what McGonagall requested.

"We don't have all day Mister Potter," Professor McGonagall announced.

"Yes Professor," James answered. He then proceeded to let Aura out of her cage. She ruffled her feathers in annoyance before perching on comfortably on his arm. He stroked her feathers and she nipped his fingers affectionately. James placed her on the table and brought out his wand before tapping her lightly once. In an instant the beautiful russet and white owl became a copper opera glass.

"Well done, now can anyone tell us how to bring Mister Potter's owl back?"

Aiden raised his hand of course, a given, but McGonagall had her sights set on some other student.

"Miss Wood?" she asked.

Emma looked up and bit her lip as James noted she always did when she was nervous. After fiddling with her glasses she answered softly, "Tap twice to return?"

"Very good Miss Wood, Mister Potter," McGonagall redirected her attention to James. "Well?"

James touched the tip of his spruce wand to the opera glass and tapped it twice. With a low hoot, seconds later, Aura was once again perched on his arm.

"Well done Potter," McGonagall commended, "Fifteen points to Gryffindor and five points to Ravenclaw."

James was left alone for the rest of the lesson and he contented himself with doodling plays just as before. McGonagall soon made them all practice turning animals into chalices as a mild review which ten minutes into the assignment everyone was able to succeed.

Towards the end of period McGonagall concluded with assigning them a foot and half with regards to something or the other that they had learned that class which had to do with Multicofors and its modern purpose.

Class was soon dismissed and all the students rushed out. James grabbed his bag, eager to leave, but unfortunately it snagged on a loose nail and tore right down the middle.

"Carry on mate," he called to Aiden, "I'll catch up later."

The classroom was now empty and James quickly picked up his things in an attempt to leave as soon as possible. He could feel McGonagall's gaze upon his back. He made one foot out of the door before he was stopped.

"Potter?" McGonagall questioned.

"Yes Professor?"

"Although you do have a certain degree of talent in my class, it would be in your best interest to pull your head out of the skies and pay some actual attention."

"How did you-,"

"There's something about three generations and four troublemakers one does typically find some sort of pattern."

James admired his professor; he caught her eye which seemed to have an everlasting twinkle. As if she knew some great secret that was not worth sharing. He smiled slightly, "Yes Professor."

He began making his way out the door before he was stopped once more, "Oh and Potter," McGonagall's voice resonated.

James peeked back inside.

"I'm fully expecting the quidditch cup this year," she said in an extremely nonchalant manner. "Flatten Miss Wood and the rest of that smarmy Ravenclaw team. I don't ever want to hear Flitwick being able to rub it in."

James beamed and said, "I'll do my best professor!" before exiting the classroom for good. He bounded down the hallway towards the library where he knew Aiden would be. It was essentially his favorite room in the entire castle.

"Oi! Aiden!" James called from across the library.

"Potter!" he sounded just as loudly.

Unfortunately they hadn't thought their greeting all the way through, seeing as Madame Greengrass made her way towards James.

"Mister Potter, ten points from Gryffindor, please control your voice. If I have to tell you again, you and Mister Chambers will have the fortune of serving a detention."

"Yes ma'am" James nodded.

James walked over to find that Aiden and Audrey had acquired a table together, just the two of them. In an attempt to not cockblock the newly blossoming relationship James said his quick hello to the couple and took a couple of steps back before stepping on something something soft.

"WHAT THE HELL POTTER!" an enraged Emma Wood shouted, clutching her foot.

"Sorry duckling."

Aiden let out a hearty laugh which quickly subsided as Madame Greengrass approached them, mumbling, "year after year, every single time. I warned you Potter, did I not? Detention, the two of you! Chambers and Potter report to your Headmistress' office promptly at 8 o'clock."

"I have quidditch this evening!"

"You should have thought of that before you decided to cause a disturbance!"

"But—"

"Would you care to make it two?"

James abruptly shut his mouth. He had the strong urge to tell her off but didn't really feel comfortable in making the situation worse than it already was.

"But-But-Madame Greengrass it really wasn't their fault," Emma interjected.

"I don't need you covering for them young lady, unless you would like to have a detention as well."

Emma opened her mouth to say something, but James quickly jabbed her in the ribs to prevent her from further putting her foot in her mouth.

She shot him a look. Madame Greengrass walked away fuming and muttering something or the other about irresponsible and disrespectful students and James turned to Aiden.

"Well it's about time isn't it?"

"We were doing so well," Aiden whined.

James shrugged, "my mum's been expecting this."

"Mine too."

"Why didn't you let me say something!" Emma exclaimed.

"Relax Em," Aiden consoled her, "it's fine! There's no use in getting your perfect reputation soiled anyhow."

James noted Emma folding her hands and with a loud huff she turned on her heel and walked away.

"Ellis, would you care to-,"

"Tell Weasely to run practice today? Not a problem handsome."

"Thanks love." James smiled.

"I'm not quite sure who's dating Ellis, you or me."

"I'd much rather snog Potter to be quite honest, bloody fit and look at that ars—"

Aiden whipped out his wand and muttered, "muffliato," as Audrey continued to speak.

"I don't think she'll be too pleased to find out we can't hear her," James whispered, "Besides, I would have loved to hear her go on."

Aiden groaned "What she doesn't know won't hurt her," Aiden said before noting that she had stopped talking and lifted the spell.

James took up residency in the Gryffindor Common room until precisely thirteen minutes to seven, when he then put his things away, stuck a spare piece of parchment in the back of his trousers and preceded to exit the portrait hole.

He waited at the corner of the charms hallway to find Aiden and then the two of them, in a somewhat mechanical manner after many years of detention, walked to the Headmistress' office.

They came to the familiar looking gargoyle and began guessing passwords. Over the many years at Hogwarts, Aiden learned he had a certain knack for guessing them. So it was no surprise that with "pecan clusters," the gargoyle jumped aside and the two boys ascended the staircase.

The passed the usual multitude of portraits that hung in the office. Many of them looked at James and Aiden in amusement rather than surprise.

"Mister Potter and Mister Chambers," McGonagall said without looking up from her desk. "Please take a seat."

The two boys silently did so.

"There isn't much left for you two to do without finding amusement in it in any way shape or form. So I suppose you can sit quietly in detention and write lines," McGonagall finally said in a relatively bored tone.

She looked up at them and said in addition, "I will be informing your parents, so please get to it, I'll have Augustus escort you down."

Augustus Rivers was the caretaker of Hogwarts, he was an old wizard who hated everything and James and Aiden were most likely toward the top of the very long list. He hobbled over to them with a permanent scowl on his face and escorted them to the detention room.

"In here, the two of you, now shut up and write five hundred lines," said the grumpy wizard. He pointed his wand towards a chalkboard and wrote, _I must respect the rules. _James caught something about being back in two hours to see where they were at before he exited and slammed the door shut behind him.

James turned to Aiden with a devilish smile on his face. "The usual?"

"Obviously," Aiden rolled his eyes. The two of them set to work. There were pieces of parchment already set on the table and James brought out two quills from his bag. The two of them each copied the line from the board, tapped the quill, and watched it scribble lines in their own respective scrawl.

Aiden locked the door and James brought out the spare piece of parchment that he had tucked in his trousers.

"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good," James muttered as a spidery font began spinning out from where James had touched the parchment with his wand.

The familiar message from Mssrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs greeted James and Aiden that evening as they planned their escape from the detention chamber.

"Cloak?" Aiden asked.

"It's in the bag," assured James.

He had the fortune of acquiring the cloak and the map just before his third year. He had wandered into his father's study and snagged the infamous icons from Harry's adventures.

"Where to tonight Chambers?"

"I don't know Potter, I'm quite in the mood for something sweet."

"To Honeydukes we go!"

And that is precisely what the two of them did. They opened the secret passage to the Honeydukes cellar and had a feast before realizing it was time to start heading back. Thanks to the cloak they had the fortune of not getting caught, and lucky for them precisely one minute after they had assembled back into their room, Augustus limped in grumpily and let them off for the evening.


	7. 6: Hell Hath No Fury

**A/N: Thank you for being super patient, I've had a busy time. I know you probably want to eat me, but please refrain from doing so. Thank you to all the reviewers, readers, and favoriters. It makes me super happy. Please continue to read this story or I might just consider stopping it, but as long as even one person is reading I will continue to write it. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

* * *

_Chapter 6: Emma_

* * *

A couple of weeks had passed by without anything particularly interesting occurring. Emma had attempted to apologize profusely but James and Aiden would have none of it. Audrey insisted that boys were being boys and muttered something about their pride and damn egos.

In fact, everything was so routine that Emma had even been able to plan out when to evade morning breakfasts after their run for precisely the reason that she was not keen on seeing James snogging some girl who gladly threw herself at him.

Aiden and Audrey, unfortunately were still stuck in that lovesick phase, not that Emma had minded, but the lovey dovey nature of their relationship had become a bit much. It was, one could say, an added bonus to avoiding Potter and his frequent conquests.

That particular morning, however, things had diverged from the normal. The air of the great hall was thick with tension and excitement. There was quiet chattering all around as Emma came down for breakfast that day. It was the morning of the match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. The sky in the great hall was a menacing gray, Emma knew what that meant as far as quidditch conditions were concerned.

She noted a messy sleep ridden head with hair sticking up in all directions in front of her, a little ways down the table. It was a figure clad in jeans and a Gryffindor sweatshirt which physically resembled James but this figure sat at the table vacantly staring at an empty plate.

Emma sat down next to James who didn't even so much as flinch. He had his eyes trained on the silver platter, eyebrows furrowed in concentration as, Emma assumed, he recalled plays and drilled them over and over again.

She frowned. There were a few sides to James that Emma knew existed. It was very rare that he was ever this serious. Emma knew that he was lost in his own head, but she liked James as she knew him, lively, if nothing else.

Emma sighed and turned to him, "Potter!" she said sternly, using her captain voice.

He slowly turned his head to Emma and smiled, "Morning love!"

"You will not, do you hear me, not fall from twenty stories in the air because you haven't eaten. Am I understood?"

James' smile faded slightly, "yes captain," he replied smugly.

James piled a bit of porridge and toast on his plate and Emma watched him carefully. He appeared to be taken out of his haze and Emma's gaze softened slightly. "You lot better win Potter, how else am I supposed to kick your arse during the championship."

James chuckled but said nothing else.

"Hey Wood," James said after some time.

"Huh?" Emma expressed eloquently. She followed James' line of vision from the top of her head, meeting her eyes.

"You look good in scarlet," he winked.

Emma absent mindedly touched the bow she had placed in her hair this morning. She flushed a faint pink. "Damn you Potter," she stated through gritted teeth.

Just as the couple from hell arrived, perfectly love sick, James took it as his cue to go and gather the rest of his teammates for a pep talk.

"I better see you on the pitch after we win little sparrow."

Emma shook her head and felt the corner of her mouth twitch, "I wouldn't miss it."

James flashed her a dazzling smile as he left that would probably make the rest of the female population at Hogwarts faint.

Some things would probably never change. Emma's mind wandered to a cocky, mischevious James Potter from dreaded parties at the Wood household. Emma cleared her mind and welcomed Audrey and Aiden.

"Blimey Emma, you're right well the shade of your bow!" exclaimed Audrey.

"What did James do this time?" Aiden asked clearly unamused.

"Nothing!" Emma insisted. She felt the blood rush to her face.

"Anymore blood rush to your face and you'll turn purple," Aiden laughed.

"I only suppose he paid her a compliment." Aubrey said. "It's either that or she tri-"

Emma shot her a warning look. She went back to her breakfast and buttered her toast. She and Aiden had an extremely engaging conversation about the effects of animal hair in Polyjuice Potion as Audrey had run off to get ready.

The two of them walked together to the quidditch pitch. Emma turned to Aiden. He was a fairly handsome bloke with stormy gray eyes and a mop of tawny hair that was always cropped short and styled so that every strand was as if it was calculated. His build was similar to James, a lean build, but his shoulders were not as broad. He had a kind smile that Emma had become accustomed to.

It had been a while since it was just the two of them, Emma missed that. They always had the most intriguing conversations. Aiden was one of the brightest wizards in their year, in a nutshell.

The air was thick with fog as the clouds slowly rumbled in the familiar manner they do right before a storm. The menacing grey skies gave a foreboding feeling that settled through the crowd that morning. Aiden looked around Emma and a funny look washed over his face. Emma simply ignored it.

They sat down in the stands and Emma yielded a piece of parchment from her pocket along with a quill.

"Not again," Aiden moaned.

"Oh shut up," Emma countered.

"LOOKS LIKE WE'VE GOT ANOTHER INTERESTING MATCH FOR TODAY," Emma heard Audrey's voice boom through the stadium. "And out comes the Slytherin Quidditch Team" Emma knew the names by heart, she didn't have to see the players fly out to know that they were assembling into position. She recited the same speech for Gryffindor as well, Emma's eyes never left the parchment. However, at the last second Emma's head shot up and traced the outline of a boy with messy dark hair, "AND OUR LOVELY CAPTAIN, JAMES POTTER."

She heard Aiden chuckle.

"What is it?" she snapped.

"Nothing," Aiden suppressed a smile, "I swear nothing."

Emma went back to the game, she watched how each respective team played and jotted down furiously on her parchment. Occasionally Gryffindor would score a goal as would Slytherin and cheers erupted from the crowd splitting Emma's concentration.

"And Brooks steals the quaffle, tosses it to Murray, who hands it to Potter, Gage goes for the steal, but no, Potter tosses it to Murray who aims at the right, a brilliant save by Malfoy, not too shabby Scorp, Potter catches it off the rebound and scores! Gryffindor 80, Slytherin 90."

Emma bit her lip.

As the fog thickened and the wind blew fiercely Emma could only hear the 'ping' of the quaffle being thrown through a hoop. "Gryffindor 90, tied with Slytherin, it's anyone's game. Come on Potter pick up the pace," Audrey announced.

"Miss Ellis!" McGonagall scolded.

"Sorry Professor," Audrey said in an absolutely unapologetic manner.

The game went on and the sky grew darker and darker, it hadn't rained yet but Emma reckoned it would start pouring eventually. She couldn't really see out onto the pitch besides the occasional beater attempting to veer the bludger from the stands and as the score approached 120-140 Slytherin, she threw down her quill in frustration and groaned.

"What's got your wand in a knot," Aiden mused.

"I can't see a damn thing," Emma complained, "How am I supposed to take efficient notes to cross reference when I can't see."

"Alright Em, here's what I want you to do, for the first time in your life, now bear with me, it might be a foreign concept," Aiden went on, "Enjoy the damn match."

"I was enjoying it!" Emma countered.

"Emma Wood. Just watch it please for the sake of-,"

Emma, however, didn't hear for whose sake she was supposed to watch the game. "AND POTTER'S CAUGHT THE SNITCH!" Audrey's voice sounded. Cheers erupted throughout the stadium. Waving scarlet and gold banners filled the right half of the stadium as students filed onto the pitch.

"I suppose we should congratulate them?" Aiden smiled.

Emma rolled her eyes, "I have the distinct fear of inflating his already large ego."

"I'll be sure to keep it under control," he stated seriously.

"Unfortunately your lovely girlfriend is disinclined to agree with you," Emma laughed.

"Sorry, what was this about a girlfriend?" Audrey interjected as she weaved her way through the stands.

Emma answered, "It's only that you'd be the one who feeds Potter's ego as opposed to deflating it."

Audrey opened her mouth to object but found that she couldn't.

"It's quite alright love, I'll still date you," Aiden smiled.

"Pardon me before I vomit," Emma groaned, "Who knew you were such a sap Aiden."

"I think it's bloody charming Emma, just because your love life is nonexistent as of now…" Audrey began ranting but Emma didn't bother to listen.

The ground on the pitch was significantly clearer than it had been on the stands. Emma searched for members of the team to offer her congratulations.

She had come across Emmeline who she complimented. Fred had given her a near bone crushing hug out of pure joy. She and Roxanne chatted for quite a bit before Roxanne offered Emma resolution to their discussion. She also came across an intertwined Kate and Aaron which Emma thought was simply adorable and didn't bother interrupting the two.

"Well done Albus," Emma greeted the green eyed, rusty haired boy.

"Thanks Emma!" he beamed.

"Hey have you seen James?"

"Uh, yes," Albus said hesitantly. "Well, he's a bit—um—preoccupied? I guess you could say."

"Albus don't be ridiculous."

Emma turned around to find James Potter, as promised, snogging a petite Gryffindor with shoulder length black hair. And at that moment something snapped inside Emma. It irritated Emma, it honest to god irritated her. The bloke could go through girls like one might go through a box of Every Flavored Beans.

Audrey and Aiden had made it down to the pitch right behind Emma, Audrey's smile from a short while ago had faltered. "Merlin, she's going to go off on him," she muttered to Aiden.

Aiden looked at Emma knowingly exchanged a glance with Audrey. They corner of his mouth twitched and in that silent exchange they knew that watching Emma Wood blow her top off over James Potter would indeed be a once in a lifetime chance. So being the lovely friends they were they watched, as one might put it, the hot cauldron bubble.

James, so it seemed had gained a sense of awareness and acknowledged the fact that there indeed were other people around, broke away from the girl he had been snogging and came face to face with a fuming Emma who he greeted with a "Hello love."

Emma at that point had had quite enough. Her wand was drawn and clutched firmly and her hand. "JAMES POTTER," she shouted. "Don't you dare 'love' me."

A genuinely confused look washed over James' face which seemed to make Emma even more irritated.

"How dare you! You go through girls as though they're nothing, bloody hell, have you even once been in a halfway decent relationship Potter?"

"I—," James began but not before Emma cut him off again.

"Do you understand how physically aggravating it is to watch you with a different girl every single damn day? And you would think after six years at Hogwarts these daft dimbos would see that you're hardly interested in a relationship and would get it through their thick skulls that YOU Potter," Emma practically spat out, "are completely incorrigible and a waste of time." It was here Emma decided to take a breath, a seemingly poor decision on her part.

"You know Wood, if you wanted to have a good snog, you could have simply asked, there's no need for you to be jealous," James smirked.

Emma's eyes widened, her jaw dropped and clamped shut as she bit her lip and processed. Aiden and Audrey observed, three seconds, ten seconds.

The angered brunette then unleashed all hell on the poor boy. "Jealous? JEALOUS POTTER, REALLY? Are you that full of yourself that you can't stand to think that someone isn't attracted to you?"

The girl he had been snogging was long gone, as soon as Emma had started her rant, she decided it would be best to simply vanish, a splendid decision on her part. Unfortunately however, as wise as the girl may have been it isn't every day that James Potter gets told off and that in and of itself had formulated a small crowd.

"All you boys are the same, self absorbed and full of themselves. I'm completely and utterly done with the male species."

And then James did something that Emma didn't quite expect. He took a stride towards her leaned past her ear and whispered softly, "I really don't think you should have said that," he stated suppressing a chuckle.

"And why the hell not?" Emma asked.

"I was hoping you didn't think that all males were that horrible," said a third voice from behind Emma.

She spun around to find herself in the middle of a group of a dozen other people, but that isn't what fazed her at all. It was the fact that Luke Evans had bore witness to Emma's little outburst. She bit her lip and her face turned a charming shade of pink. Luke walked up to her and Emma could hear in the distance Audrey waving off the crowd.

"You know," he continued, "I would really love to take you to Hogsmeade. Would you care to join me?"

"I- I- I- uh—I'm sorry—I—uh," Emma stumbled over her words.

"Well done Evans, Wood's hardly ever at a loss for words as you by now know," James interjected.

"In fact," Emma heard Audrey said, "She would be more than happy to join you!"

Luke looked half amused and half confused. "Well that's great! I'll see you around Emma." He swiftly kissed her cheek, and walked back to the castle.

"Huh, well would you look at that," James said nonchalantly, "Wood's got herself a date."

"I-uh—I," and suddenly anger surged through Emma. "James Potter I am extremely capable of speaking for myself. You're absolutely intolerable."

"You could have spared me the trouble, by, you know, actually speaking."

"Ugh!" Emma shouted in frustration. "Damn you Potter."

James caught the eye of his best friend. "Oi Chambers, why couldn't you have restrained the witch?"

"Well mate," Aiden laughed, "I really did want a spot of amusement. And also, I do beg you to keep in mind, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

"Cosgrove, nicely done," Emma commended.

"Thanks love," Aiden smiled.

"What?" James and Audrey asked terribly confused.

Aiden laughed, "Don't piss off a lass or it'll be the last thing you do."

"Shut up you arse," James exclaimed.

Emma noted James turning an ever so light shade of red as he scratched the back of his head.

"And you," Emma called out Audrey, "Don't you dare say another word, ever, regarding Luke or I might just hex you."

"Okay, okay," Audrey held her hands up in surrender, "I won't mention the bloody gorgeous boy and your upcoming date with him," she smiled slyly.

"I hate you lot," Emma groaned.


	8. 7: Notes for Another Date

**A/N: Thank you everyone for all the feedback! Hopefully you like the way the story turns out (fingers crossed). I gave it my best shot. I really hope you like this chapter, I know it's not as much James/Emma as you might have hoped, but the build up is the best part!**

**Once again thank you for following/favoriting/commenting, it means a lot! I don't think I can stress that enough. **

**EVERYONE IS BACK IN SCHOOL NOW, YAYY! Just kidding. But you guys will all have lots of fun, maybe, probably, hopefully. **

* * *

_Chapter 7: James_

* * *

For the next few days Emma had decidedly and blatantly avoided James. Of course they had class together and that couldn't be avoided, but she often made excuses to leave as soon as possible and spent more time than James thought possible, away from him. James assumed that it wasn't that she was angry with him, she just felt as though the situation was awkward seeing as neither of them had decided to make amends. Needless to say their morning jogs had been quiet and uncomfortable. It was quite a feat that they hadn't stopped all together.

The morning before all the students were all set out for Hogsmeade, it came as a large surprise when out of nowhere James witnessed Emma stop and say, a tad breathlessly, "I'm sorry James."

"You've run this path dozens of times Em, are you okay?"

"I'm not talking about the path you bloody idiot, I'm just sorry, okay?"

James tensed and studied Emma carefully. She'd worn a loose baby pink jumper which had slipped slightly off her shoulder with a pair of black running shorts. Her wavy, chocolate hair was tied up messily in a ponytail with her signature ribbon and there were a few fly aways plastered to the side of her face from running. He tried to meet her eyes, but it seemed as though she would much rather play with a loose pebble that her shoe had befriended.

James shrugged, "It's fine."

Emma's eyes shot up. She looked him in the eye now, "James I was awful to you, we barely spoke over these past few days, I had no right to get involved in your personal life, I am so horribly sorry. It's just that it made me so angry, I really—and then after, and…"

She drawled on, but James had stopped listening at some point, "Shut up," he said.

"I beg your pardon?" she asked slightly offended.

"You're allowed to voice your opinion, now listening to you is a different thing entirely, but we are friends, and uh-you worry too much love."

"I-I-uh."

"Good! Now that we're back to articulate sentences, I'll be expecting my Bertie Botts today."

"And what makes you think that I have any Every Flavored Beans on me?" Emma quickly regained her wits.

"Hogsmeade of course!" James said with a devilish grin.

"DAMN IT" Emma shouted. "This weekend?"

"You're the prefect!" James accused her while stifling a laugh. "Say, isn't your date with Evans today as well."

"BLOODY HELL," Emma's eyes widened to the size of quarters.

"What?" James laughed, "You're not planning on going like this? I think you look nice."

"Oh shut it, how the hell did I forget, I plan everything. Everything, do you understand me Potter? Everything."

At this point Emma had taken to pacing about like a madwoman. She began rambling about how she had so much to do, her hair, her clothes, and James stared at her comically. Living with Lily had given him a certain degree of understanding, he was never to interrupt a girl while ranting, so he let Emma expel her frustration before asking her to simply return back to the castle since she had a good two hours until she had to go on her date.

Emma turned on her heel and ran back to the castle leaving James near the lake. He jogged in the opposite direction, finishing the path. James stopped at the quidditch pitch that morning. He grabbed a broom from the broom closet and just flew. He flew laps around the pitch for what seemed like ages before deciding to head back to the school.

He sat down for breakfast that morning, rubbing his temples, for as usual the smell of lilacs had plagued James' head.

"You alright mate?" Aiden asked.

James nodded, "Yeah I'm alright, there's always this smell though, of damn lilacs in the bath."

"Huh," Aiden huffed as a pensive look washed over his face.

"Say," said James, "Where's your bird?"

"She's with Emma, I think," answered Aiden.

"Right, her date," James addressed.

"You'll be at Hogsmeade today, I'm assuming?"

"With Mackenzie Dalton," James smiled cheekily.

"Our year, right? The Gryffindor?"

James nodded.

"I see," Aiden contemplated.

"What?" James asked.

Aiden shook it off and returned to his breakfast.

James decided he best leave and wait for Mackenzie outside the Great Hall in order to spare looking for her through all the tables.

"Oi Al!" James called out as he spotted his brother.

Albus turned around, a bit disheveled and smiled at his brother, waving him over. Albus was on his way, walking out of the hall dressed in his prefect robes with a dark haired witch at his side who fell right under Albus' eye level. She had lovely blue eyes and mid length hair that was so dark it could, quite frankly, be mistaken for black.

"Morning Kayley," greeted James with a wink.

Albus shot him a look as if to say don't you dare. Kayley Finnegan was a friend of the family. She had grown up meeting the Potters often and she and Albus had developed a friendship of sorts. Both of them were in the same year at Hogwarts meaning that they had many of their classes together. It just so happened that both of them made prefect, which meant that they rounded together as well.

"Hello James," she replied.

"You look nice today," James complimented.

"Thank you," Kayley smiled.

Albus looked as though he was ready to bang his head on the stone walls of the castle.

"I was talking to Al," James let out a laugh.

Kayley huffed. Al chuckled as he shook his head.

"It's okay Kayley, I think you look pretty too," James said as ruffled her hair.

"Shut up James," the two of them yelled simultaneously.

"So are-," James raised his eyebrows and directed his unfinished statement at Albus.

Albus sent his brother a malicious glare in response.

The situation with the two was as such, they knew nearly everything about each other, they were essentially perfect for each other, and the entire family had placed bets on when the two would get together. Uncle George warranted that it would happen by Christmas, Fred reckoned end of fifth year, but James, knowing his brother and how stubborn he was decided on the summer. Even Lily had taken a bet, she bet on later in the summer, right before term began.

Albus had often been teased by the rest of the family and insisted that they were simply best mates. He had equated it to James and Emma, without the argument and obvious sexual tension.

This resulted in Albus coming down one morning with honey blond hair that Ginny did not approve of at all.

"Okay?" James raised his hands in surrender.

"Huh?" Kayley asked.

"Don't worry about it," muttered Albus.

"I'll take that as my cue then," James announced. "I'll see you kids around."

"Alright James," Albus waved him off.

"Bye Jamsie," Kayley called after him.

James split off in the opposite direction from the two fifth years and found his way outside the castle.

The crisp autumn air hit him as he walked towards the familiar wizarding town. James leaned against the archway waiting to find Mackenzie. About five minutes after reaching, a bevy of Hogwarts students, presumably third years, began making their way into the village.

James soon spotted Mackenzie, a tall blonde witch in a navy blue pin dot dress and hair swept to one side in a braid.

"Hello love," James sought out the witch.

"James!" she exclaimed and gave him a quick hug.

"So where to first Miss Dalton?"

And with that the date had commenced. The two of them strolled around the streets of Hogsmeade quite a bit, and it turned out that Mackenzie was quite a lovely girl. They settled for a spot of tea at Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop which James wasn't too fond of, but he sat through it anyway.

The two of them soon exited and headed towards Honeydukes at James' insistence that he would pay for whatever she liked.

On his way into the store, he unfortunately brushed shoulders with a witch to whom he apologized. He turned to see her face and found himself exclaiming, "Wood?"

"Potter!" Emma said slightly surprised.

James had barely recognized her, she wore her usual wavy brunette hair pin straight, the only signature the bow clip on the side of her head with her glasses slightly askew. He saw that she was standing in extremely close proximity to Luke Evans.

"Hey Evans."

"Potter," Luke acknowledged James.

"Evans, Wood, this is Mackenzie," he gestured towards his date.

"Hello," Emma said politely as Luke waved.

"So I see you've got quite a bit of shopping then?" James said motioning towards the bags of sweets in Emma's hand.

"Yeah," Luke laughed, "you wouldn't believe Emma's sweet tooth."

"I really would," James chuckled.

"Sod off Potter," Emma warned.

"So touchy," James teased. "But if I'm not mistaken, you do owe me something."

Emma rolled her eyes and fished through one of the bags pulling out a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Beans and tossed it to him. "That should do it, yeah?"

"Yeah, that should." James caught the box. "Have fun little wren."

James was content thinking that Emma didn't hear him, when in reality she didn't bother dignifying that with a response. Mackenzie and James said their goodbyes to Luke and Emma before departing into the sweet shop.

"Would you care for some beans?" James offered.

Mackenzie politely declined. The two of them together browsed the isles until Mackenzie said, "You know James I wish I had people who always gave me chocolates."

"Oh," James laughed, "It was a bet."

"I see," said Mackenzie. "She's very pretty, Emma."

James hesitated momentarily before he went to grab a liquorice wand, "I suppose so," he said nonchalantly. "Although, you're quite pretty too," James winked.

Mackenzie rolled, "You're such a flirt."

"Well how else do you suppose I charm lovely witches such as yourself to go on dates with me?"

She laughed and shook her head.

They continued browsing the isles until James had a sufficient amount of sweets in his hands and then the two of them rung up their sweets and exited Honeydukes.

The rest of the date went quite decently, up until Mackenzie was informed by Macey Collins that Rosaline Bonnet had just broken up with her boyfriend and had locked herself up in the girls' dormitory.

Mackenzie apologized profusely to James explaining that Rosaline was one of her best friends and James insisted that he didn't mind at all. So when Mackenzie offered James a slight hug, he would have typically taken the opportunity to kiss the lass. However, James instead found himself hesitating and offering her a friendly kiss on the cheek in lieu of a polite snog.

"You know James," she said to him before leaving, "you really are quite a gentleman."

James smiled halfheartedly as Mackenzie Dalton darted off into the castle.

"Shit," James muttered. He had really wanted to kiss her, and a week ago he wouldn't have thought twice about it. But all he could hear as he'd went into kiss her was the sound of Emma shouting at him that day on the quidditch pitch, ringing in his ears. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples to get rid of the god awful shouting match that was taking place in his head.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" someone snapped at James.

He opened his eyes to see none other than Lily standing in front of him. "Sorry?" he asked "What?"

"Are you feeling okay James?" Lily asked. There was a sparkle in her green eyes and her red hair matched the crisp fall weather that year. It was one of the few times during the year that her hair blended into the surroundings as opposed to standing out against it.

"Yeah I'm alright Lil," James answered a tad bit confused, "Why? And say, where's the rest of your little army?"

Lily, ignoring the latter part of the question seemed extremely concerned about her brother. "Bloody hell James, you didn't kiss her goodbye. You always kiss the girl goodbye. That's like a given."

"Lily!" James exclaimed, he felt the heat rush to his face. He thanked his father's genes that he hadn't picked up the signature ability to turn into a tomato like a majority of the Weasley's did. "My personal life is none of your concern! And how would mum feel about you're filthy vocabulary?"

Lily shrugged nonchalantly, "I'm your sister, it's my job. Besides, we take as much interest in Al's love life wouldn't you say?" James glared at his sister who simply smiled back innocently. "Plus, I wouldn't think much of the vocabulary that I use when we have Roxanne."

"You're a right smartarse Lily Potter, I hope you realize."

She smiled devilishly. Sometimes James could forget that Lily was a devious thirteen year old, yet this was not one of those times.

"So James, do you care to share what happened?"

"Not particularly, no."

"But you WILL do it anyways, right?" she said a tad bit dangerously.

James laughed. "Absolutely not Lils," he said to her as he attempted to walk around her.

She stood adamantly in his way, another fantastic Potter trait that the two of them had picked up, never ending stubbornness.

"Why not?" she huffed and stomped her foot.

"Because," James shrugged simply, "It's quite frankly, none of your—"

"You say concern and I'll write to mum and tell her that you were the one who smashed the family clock and blamed it on poor little Aura."

"You wouldn't."

"Try me," Lily smirked as she observed her nails casually.

"Why you little devil," James huffed. "I've taught you too well."

"I'm waiting," said Lily impatiently tapping her foot.

"Alright, well," James said scratching the back of his head. "I dunno really. I guess er—ever since that day Emma told me off..."

Lily, surprisingly, said nothing. She only furrowed her eyebrows and seemed to be in deep concentration.

"Lily," James barked.

"Huh?" Lily asked, "Oh right!"

"What does it mean?" James asked.

"What? That you haven't been able to properly snog another lass?" Lily responded. "Well it could mean that you've finally gotten every decent witch to see right through you."

James raised his eyebrows.

"Or, it could mean that a decent witch has finally gotten through to your thick head."

"Shut up."

"Well you asked for it!"

James scoffed, "Are you kidding me Lily, you just spent the last ten minutes badgering me about my personal life and I," James gestured to himself, "asked for it? You're barking mad!"

"All in due time brother," Lily smirked.

James shook his head, "Okay, get out of here Lily, go join your army of adolescent girls."

"Fine, I'll see you at dinner," and with that Lily Potter whipped around and met her friends inside Honeydukes, sending her red hair flying in the brisk autumn air.

He loved his sister, but she was a right nutter. James headed towards the Three Broomsticks where he was greeted by a cheery Madame Rosemerta who was quite vivant in her old age. "Oh, you look just like your grandfather," she said to James every time he'd visit her. "Such a good looking lad."

"I'm not as good looking as you Madame Rosmerta," James said with a heavy wink.

"Oh you charmer," she waved her hand.

James took a seat at an empty table and ordered one butterbeer.

"Hey Potter," he heard someone call to him from across the pub.

James looked around to find Aiden waving him over. James smiled over to him as he called out "Chambers!"

He found Audrey and Aiden already seated at a booth and he slid in across from them. James saw their hands intertwined under the table as both of them greeted him warmly.

"How was your date then?" James asked.

Audrey huffed, "Aiden is an arse."

James raised his eyebrows.

"Audrey is stubborn," Aiden shrugged.

"Well it's good to see things are back to normal then," James laughed.

Audrey and Aiden soon chimed in as well.

After the laughter died down a bit Aiden asked, "So where did Miss Dalton run off to? Did she really hate you that much?"

Madame Rosemerta dropped off James' butterbeer, sparing him the chance to respond. He thanked her kindly. He took a sip of the drink and it warmth spread though his insides. "She—uh she had to help her roommate, boy problems I think."

"Was it Rosaline Bonnet? I heard she had quite a nasty row with Joel Clearwater quite recently," Aubrey asked.

James nodded. "So what do the two of you have planned for the rest of the day?" he asked curiously.

"Well, Aiden over here insists on cutting short our date so he can go _study_ for charms."

"I've been incredibly behind," Aiden insisted. "Besides I promised I'd make it up to her. I'm not all bad."

"What so like a midnight date then?" James asked.

Aiden groaned. "Excellent job Potter, giving the barking mad lass ideas."

"Oh James, that's so romantic," Audrey gushed. "Aiden please?"

Aiden glared at James who simply chuckled. "Yeah, Aiden please?" he teased.

"Fine," Aiden huffed.

"Okay go get going," Audrey practically shoved him out of the booth, "go study."

"I hope you're happy mate," Aiden said as he brushed off his robes.

"Ecstatic," responded James.

Before passing James on the way out of the door he stopped in front of him and mouthed "map?"

James responded with a curt nod, and clapped his friend on the back.

Audrey sipped her butterbeer. "He really fancies you, you know?" James told her.

"Yeah, I quite fancy him too," she said smiling.

"I'm glad it all worked out. We all wondered for the longest time when you two would just snog it off and be done with the bickering."

Audrey laughed, "Did you now?" She muttered something else under her breath that James couldn't quite catch except the last couple of words which sounded something like, "we can relate."

"Sorry?" James said.

Audrey shook her head, "Nothing. But say! You wouldn't have happened to run into Emma today, did you?"

"I did actually!" James exclaimed, "She was on her date with Luke, he's quite a nice bloke."

"And downright fit too!" Audrey interjected.

"I'm sure Aiden would love to hear that."

Audrey shrugged. "We should probably get back to the castle though, I suspect Emma has finished her date, and I want to hear all about it."

James rolled his eyes, "Girls. Don't you lot have anything better to do?"

"Well just because we don't keep everything bottled up inside us and mope around because nobody understands our feelings don't mean we have nothing better to do."

"Boys do not mope around."

"Will you please remind me what Aiden was like the day of his game."

"Point taken."

And with that the two of them left for the castle and split in their respective directions. James headed back to the common room while Audrey split off to find Emma.


End file.
